


Chaos

by Zylo



Series: Insanity AU [7]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Fantasy, Fantasy elements, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, sympathetic deceit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-05-30 22:18:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 33
Words: 27,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15105968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zylo/pseuds/Zylo
Summary: A vision? Or just a nightmare? Either way, Andy didn't sign up for this chaos. Hell, none of them did.Sequel to Insanity.





	1. Prelude: Vision or Nightmare?

"You thought you could get rid of _me_?!"

  
That voice... There was no way that was possible. He was dead and gone, everyone saw it happen. Despite that, here he was, laying waste to..."the real world?" Smoke clouded the skies as buildings burned, people desperately fleeing into the wilderness. Andy looked around for the others, only to jump back when he suddenly appeared in front of him.

  
" _You_ -!" Andy was cut off, a clawed hand around his neck choking him with ease. His attempts to escape were in vain and he could see his vision quickly getting darker. He could barely hear the words whispered to him as he blacked out.

  
"You _will_ suffer!"

  
" _Aaaaah_!"

  
Andy panicked as he woke up, falling out of bed in a tangle of his pillows and his blanket. "Ow! Damn it!" Shaking his head, he focused on calming himself down. ' _It was just another fucking nightmare. That's all. Everyone is safe and asleep, there's no bloodthirsty demon around, you're **fine**._ '

  
Getting up, Andy grabbed his phone off the bedside table and hissed as light from the screen hit his face. Using the light from the phone to see somewhat, he dragged everything back onto his bed. As soon as he lied back down, he felt it vibrating and groaned, "Now what?"

  
"A text from Remy...figures," Andy muttered.

  
_'Ey, I heard a thud from your room. You alright?' -Remy_

  
_'I fell out of bed. That's all.' - Andy_

  
_'Gurl, how the hell'd you fall out of bed? You fightin' in your dreams or something?' -Remy_

  
_'You could say that.' -Andy_

  
_'... I'll be right there.' -Remy_

  
"Wait- _what_?" Andy asked aloud to himself. As soon as he did, Remy appeared standing next to his bed, Starbucks cup in hand. Upon turning and seeing the other figment so close to him so suddenly, he let out a startled yelp. "Don't do that!"

  
Remy took quick sip from his Starbucks to hide his grin, "So sorry. So what were you dreaming about?"

  
Andy rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms, "Yeah, I'm sure. I..." He sighed, still not entirely used to talking to anyone about his nightmares.

  
"Come on, out with it," Remy put his free arm around Andy's shoulders. "I ain't gonna judge you."

  
He took a breath as he thought it over. ' _Well, Remy's here now and he's not going to leave without an answer..._ ' "I had a nightmare...about _Insanity_."

  
Remy blinked, confusion evident on his face, even with the sunglasses that he seemed to never take off. "Arlo and Aiden said that Insanity wasn't a real demon - he's not coming back so there's no need to worry."

  
"I know that," Andy said, "but this nightmare was way too fucking disturbing for me to not think about."

  
Putting down his Starbucks cup, Andy was surprised to see Remy also take his sunglasses off for once. Looking at his fellow figment, Remy spoke, concern in his voice, "Andy...what happened in this nightmare?"

  
"Insanity appeared in the real world."


	2. Damon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I already had this chapter typed out ahead of time so here ya go, a set up chapter.

Someone or something was stalking about a dimly lit cave system. This place used to be part of a booming mining operation, supplying coal for the nearby town. However, that was many, many years ago. Now it sat nearly abandoned, local legends of ghosts keeping all but the most foolhardy of people away.

  
"I can't believe this!" The creature was ranting aloud to itself, something it had taken up doing since arriving back to its foreboding home. "I was so close! So fucking close to my goal!" It then slammed its fist into a wall, leaving an indent in its wake.

  
Growling, the creature stalked towards the entrance to its home. Looking at the town in the distance, it noticed the sun was starting to set. A smirk slowly crept across its face. "Well, at the very least I can go grab something for dinner. Maybe one of those idiot " _ghost hunters_ " who try to investigate around here."

* * *

  
Another day, another adventure in the Imagination...at least, that was the plan. Sure, they were expecting some kind of chaos, it was par for the course at this point, but they weren't expecting this. One minute, they're facing down the Dragon Witch's minions and the next? A flash of light from the outside world strong enough to overtake everything resulting in Thomas standing in some strange town at night. Even stranger?

  
"What-?! How the-?!" Thomas uttered, staring at the group of people standing before him. The group of people who by all means should still be residing in his mind and not standing outside in the real world with him. People who were just as shocked as he was...

  
The sides and the figments were standing before Thomas, in the real world.

  
The creature had resigned itself to lurking through the deserted streets for its meal. It hated nights like this, when it'd have to put in more effort than it deemed necessary. Suddenly, voices caught its attention and the creature ducked into a dark alley. Peaking out carefully, it looked around and spotted the sources. Barring its teeth, it let out a low growl at who it saw. "Thomas..."

  
By all means, it would have attacked the human right then and there. However, it was stopped in its tracks when it saw that Thomas wasn't alone. "Of course, of fucking course..."

* * *

  
"Alright, none of you have any idea what happened?" Thomas asked, looking at the group.

  
"Unfortunately, we only know the same thing that you do Thomas," Logan said. "There was a bright flash of light and suddenly we're all standing here."

  
Thomas groaned, " _Great_..."

  
As the creature continued to listen in, it gathered from what was said that these other humans were connected to Thomas and his mind. ' _This...could actually work in my favor. Just got to play it cool..._ ' The creature concentrated and shape shifted into a human form, something that would let it fit in alongside the town locals. Letting out a breath, the creature stood up straight and walked out of the alley, looking as inconspicuous as possible. 'Ah yes, this should do for now...'

  
Once he started getting closer to the group, he called out, "Uh, hello there! Are you out-of-towners?"

  
It worked near perfectly, he had successfully managed to trick the group into trusting him - in Damon - and staying with him at the abandoned mines. All he had to do was spin a wild tale about how the locals were highly superstitious and that they had a tendency to run those they deemed "demonic" out of town. Throw in a tidbit of that having happened to himself and that's why he calls the mines his home? They actually believed it. Well, some of them had their suspicions, in particular a certain half-snake who he swore was hissing out the word " _lies_ " under his breath.

  
That didn't matter right now though. While the group was getting as comfortable as they could with the sleeping bags Damon provided, he went back up to the surface under the guise of having spotted someone else wandering around where they shouldn't be. To be fair, that wasn't entirely a lie. Damon had in fact spotted a drunk local wandering around, a local who would serve as the creature's dinner.

  
While he quietly stalked towards the drunkard, there was one thought in his mind, ' _This is going to be fun..._ '


	3. Doppelgangers?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to get this show on the road.

"Honestly, I don't understand Thomas's instance on stopping here. This is only serving to prolong our trip home," Logan said.

  
"Aw, let him have some fun, Lo!" Patton responded, laying his head on Logan's lap. Both of them were relaxing in the commons of the mindscape. "The town looks like a nice place."

  
"There is nothing of historical significance tho-!" Logan was cut off by Patton leaning up and giving him a quick kiss. This left Logan a stammering mess, his face quickly turning red.

  
Patton merely grinned in response, "So?"

  
Logan sighed and shook his head, "Sometimes I question how I put up with you."

  
"It's because you love me!" Patton answered happily.

* * *

  
Damon was stalking around the town, having felt a far too familiar presence here for him to ignore. He ignored the looks the locals were giving him, too focused on the issue at hand to give a damn. After half an hour of searching, Damon finally found...him. A smirk crossed his face as he spied on the oblivious human. ' _Thomas_.'

  
In an instant, his thoughts flashed to his " _guests_ " over at the mines. His smirk grew wider as an idea came to him. ' _This will be fun...for me at least_.' It would be easy enough, after all, he already tricked them with his story about the locals. ' _What's a story about supposed demonic doppelgangers? It would lend credence to the whole superstitious locals angle I went with_.'

  
Quickly, Damon disappeared from sight into an alley. Within seconds, he teleported to the outside of the mines. ' _Don't need to let on that I'm not human..._ ' He walked through them, until he reached the area where the group of humans were.

  
"Well, how did you all sleep?" Damon asked, throwing a false tone of concern into his voice.

  
Thomas looked at the rest of them and shrugged, "As good as possible, I suppose."

  
Damon nodded, "It can't be helped, given the circumstances."

  
"Where were you this morning?" Deceit asked, eyeing him suspiciously. "You didn't say that you _weren't_ going anywhere."

  
' _Damn snake...too bothersome for his own good_.' "Something important came up. As much as the locals...dislike me, I still try to keep an eye out for them," Damon said. "For once, I think there is some credence to their suspicions."

  
The others looked among themselves, concern clear on their faces. One of the figments - a therapist named Emile - as Damon learned last night, spoke up, "What seems to be the problem, Damon?"

  
Damon looked around at them before speaking, "Doppelgangers. _Demonic_ doppelgangers."

* * *

  
Thomas sighed as he lied down on the motel bed. The town was nice but something seemed... _strange_.

  
_'Is there any point in time where it felt like something was real **off**?'_

  
That's what Aiden had asked him when they were discussing Insanity. At first, he said no as that was the truth. Now though? The truth had changed in an instant. "Hey Aiden?"

  
Anger suddenly appeared in the room, a look of confusion on his face. "Yeah Tom? What's up?"

  
"Remember how you asked me if I ever felt like something was off, you know, in a bad way?" Thomas sat up to look at the side.

  
The confusion on Anger's face quickly changed to concern, "Of course. Why?"

  
"Well..." Thomas started, "I was fine initially but after a while, something in this town started to feel... _unnerving_."

  
Anger frowned, "Shit. Alright...I'll let the others know. I'm saying this right now - for your own safety, we leave first thing in the morning. No arguments. Got it?"

  
Thomas nodded his head and watched as Anger sunk down.

  
The next morning, the uneasy feeling only got worse. This time, it felt like there was someone watching him. After checking out of the motel, Thomas made his way to his car.

  
" _Now._ "

  
Before Thomas could react, he felt something hit him in the back of the head. As everything went black, he could barely hear voices talking.

  
" _Looks like Damon was right._ "

  
" _Yeah yeah, let's get him back to the mines before he wakes up._ "

  
Hidden from view, Damon smirked at the sight. ' _If I can't kill them then I'll just let them destroy **themselves**_.' Quietly, Damon trailed behind, making sure that he wasn't seen. He decided that the minute they were back in the mines, he would seal off the exits. ' _Gonna get my revenge without having to even lift a finger. Maybe who ever is left can be of some use to me later._ '

* * *

  
Waking up with a groan, the first thing Thomas realized was that there was a throbbing pain in the back of his head. The second thing he noticed was that he was in some kind of makeshift cell in a dimly lit room. Finally, he noticed someone sitting on a chair opposite the cell.

  
"You're _not_ awake."

  
Thomas stared at the person, confusion evident on his face. He looked like Deceit but at the same time, there were...differences. The snake scales on his face blended along with his skin far better than Thomas was used to seeing and they lacked the still healing claw marks that Insanity had left. Other than some clothing differences, such as his cape being more of a cloak, Thomas could feel a difference just by being near him. It was a feeling of distrust and it was aimed towards him.

  
"...Mendax?" Thomas asked.

  
Deceit narrowed his eyes, "Who hell _isn't_ Mendax?"

  
A chill ran through Thomas as he heard those words. This wasn't right and he knew it. Closing his eyes, he focused as hard as he could on the side he needed to wake up and summon.

  
With a start, Deceit got up from his chair and walked over, putting his hands on the bars. "The hell _aren't_ you doing?"

  
With a shout, Thomas called out Deceit's - his Deceit's - name, " _MENDAX_!"

  
In an instant, Thomas was no longer alone in his cell. Mendax was there with him.


	4. Another Nightmare?

Andy looked around what was left of the deserted town. He had gotten separated from the others during an ambush and had no clue where to even start looking. Fires raged among the buildings, smoke clouding the sky in an artificial darkness. In the distance, the sounds of a fight raged on, cluing him in on where he should go.

  
Running as fast as he could, he stumbled upon a sight that came from his worst nightmares. His family were lying in pools of their own blood. It was then he heard a laugh that made his blood run cold. Looking up, he saw Insanity standing on one of the burning buildings, surrounded by a group of people who were being obscured by the smoke.

  
" _How does it feel being the last one left?_ "

  
Andy glanced between Insanity and his family, panic trying to take over his mind and distract him. The next thing he knew, the demon was right in front of him. Pain shot through his chest and he looked down in shock. Insanity had shoved his claws right through him. He watched in a daze as Insanity pulled his claws back. Collapsing to the ground, he heard Insanity laughing as everything began to fade to black.

  
" _I told you I'd return_."

  
Andy woke with a start, looking around. He was in the Imagination, in the same exact area when the world suddenly turned black. "I'm alive... It was just another nightmare..." However, despite what he was trying to tell himself, Andy still felt like something was off. Shaking his head desperately, he decided that he couldn't stay here.

* * *

  
"What the hell _isn't_ going on here?" Mendax asked calmly, too calmly in Thomas's opinion given the current situation, looking between Thomas and his own doppelganger.

  
"I wish I knew. One minute I'm outside the motel, the next I'm waking up here," Thomas replied.

  
Deceit watched them warily, not detecting a lie from this...Thomas so far. Still, it was too early to come to a conclusion. "...Damon mentioned demonic doppelgangers. Looks like he _wasn't_ correct."

  
Both of them snapped their attention to him. Mendax narrowed his eyes while Thomas looked unnerved at the mere mention of the word " _demonic_ ". Stepping up to the bars of the cell, Mendax stared at his doppelganger straight in the eyes, dropping the whole lying bit to get his tone across better, " _Who_ the fuck is _Damon_?"

  
Deceit took a step back, not willing to admit aloud that he was slightly intimidated by that. "He's _not_ the guy who lives in these mines."

  
Mendax glanced back at Thomas before returning his gaze to his doppelganger. "Never heard of the bastard."

  
Before Deceit could reply, there was a panicked shout and in the cell was a third person.

  
"Andy?!" Thomas rushed over to the figment. He was curled up in a corner, hands in his hair, terror clear on his face. Andy let out a yelp as he tried to scramble away, too caught up in his own thoughts to notice what was going on.

  
"Shit," Mendax muttered, walking over to the two but keeping enough distance to not upset Andy further.

  
Carefully, Thomas reached one of his hands out towards the figment, "Andy. Andy, it's me, Thomas."

  
Unfocused eyes gazed at Thomas before finally, Andy spoke," T-Thomas?"

  
Deceit watched the scene before him. ' _...Doppelgangers? Yes. Demonic? ...Doubtful. Very, very doubtful_.' Quietly, he sneaked out of the room, leaving the three alone in the cell. He needed to think about this.

* * *

  
Eventually, Thomas and Mendax managed to calm Andy down enough for the time being. "Andy, what happened?" Thomas asked.

  
"I- It- A nightmare," Andy stuttered out. "I-Insanity came back."

  
Thomas and Mendax glanced at each other, both clearly worried. "Another one..." Mendax muttered.

  
"What do you mean ' _another one_ '? We know that he has nightmares from time to time," Thomas said, trying to keep his voice steady.

  
"...He's been having nightmares about Insanity returning," Mendax said quietly.

  
"What? Why didn't any of you tell me about this?" Thomas asked.

  
"I-I told them not too," Andy answered. "Mendax and Remy a-are the only ones who know. Didn't want to worry everyone, especially not you and Virgil."

  
"So Aiden doesn't know then," Thomas replied with a frown.

  
Mendax raised an eyebrow at Thomas, "No...why?"

  
Thomas looked between the two of them, "A while ago, Aiden and Arlo approached me and asked me some things regarding Insanity. Andy's not the only one who's been having nightmares about Insanity - Aiden has been as well."

  
Mendax clenched his eyes shut as he wrapped his arms around himself. Knowing that his father was having nightmares because of everything...it bothered him. It bothered him that any of them were having nightmares about that demon. All they had been through and yet that demon's presence still tormented them.

  
Andy spoke up, "I...I'm gonna go back to the mindscape, if you guys don't mind..."

  
Thomas nodded his head, "Of course, Andy. What about you Mendax?"

  
Mendax was silent for a moment. "...I'll let Pops know what's going on. Expect him to show up."

  
In an instant, Thomas was alone once more in the cell.


	5. Truth or Lie?

Deceit walked through the mines towards the area where the others were. A scowl was on his face as his thoughts raced. He didn't trust Damon from the get-go and this was just re-enforcing that. Upon arriving, he noticed that most of the others were sleeping, the rush of everything having hit them full force, causing them to become exhausted.

  
Looking around, he saw that the rest of the Troublemakers were still awake, playing some game with cards that Damon had lying around. Heading over, Deceit sat down next to a pouting Greed. "What's _not_ wrong, gecko?"

  
The others snickered at the nickname while Greed just huffed, " _Gator_. Not gecko."

  
"The gecko got frustrated trying to learn how to play Poker," Virgil said with a smirk.

  
" _Gator_! You all know this!" Greed yelled, slamming his fist on the ground for emphasis. This only caused the rest of them to start laughing and for Greed to hiss at them.

  
"Alright, alright, cool it," Andy said once Greed started hissing.

  
"Ey Dee, did ya find out anything about the prisoner?" Remy asked once they all quieted down.

  
"I _didn't_ find more proof that what I've been saying is right - Damon is lying through his teeth," Deceit answered, crossing his arms across his chest in defiance.

  
The others glanced among themselves. They were among the few who were on the fence about this whole thing while Deceit was the only one besides Emile who didn't believe Damon at all. Finally, as their group's leader, Andy was the one who spoke up. "What kind of proof?"

  
Deceit took a breath before he spoke, "He _didn't_ have a minor freak-out and summoned my doppelganger."

  
Remy nearly spit out his Starbucks drink at that, "Wait- _what_?!"

  
Deceit nodded his head, "I got _a lot_ out of them but what I _didn't_ amounts to them having no idea what's going on and they have no idea who Damon is."

  
"...You're sure that wasn't just lies?" Virgil asked, looking unsure about the whole thing.

  
"I'm _not_ sure," Deceit answered.

  
Greed then spoke up with his own question in mind, "What about the whole demonic thing Damon was talking about?"

  
Deceit seemed to take a moment to think before answering, "I don't believe that they're _not_ demons. If they were, I don't think they'd particularly care that one of their own was having a panic attack."

  
The others all glanced at each other, confusion on their faces. "Dee, what happened in there?" Andy asked.

  
The lying side sighed before looking at the figment, "Your doppelganger _didn't_ show up panicking and looking down right terrified of something."

* * *

  
Upon opening the door and looking to the cell, Remy made a startling discovery. "Hey...guys?"

  
"What's wrong, Remy?" Virgil asked.

  
Remy looked between the cell and the Troublemakers in disbelief before standing aside, "See for yourselves." Heading into the room, the same shocked feeling passed over the rest of them. The cell bars were broken apart and the prisoner was nowhere to be seen.

  
"How the fuck?" Andy asked.

  
"...If he's not here, wouldn't that mean...?" Greed trailed off.

  
The five all looked at each other, realizing exactly what problems this could cause.

  
" _He escaped into the mines!_ "

* * *

  
Thomas ran after Anger deeper and deeper into the mines. Only once Anger was sure that no one would be able to find them did they stop. Looking around, they noticed an abandoned office room nearby, no doubt a left-over from when the mines were in operation. "Come on, that place is big enough to stay in for now," Anger said, heading over to it and forcing the dust-covered door open.

  
"What are we going to do? We can't just stay down here forever," Thomas remarked after catching his breath.

  
"We won't Tom," Anger responded, noticing a map of the mines hanging up on one of the walls, "we'll figure out what the hell is going on and find our way out of here."

  
"What about...what about those doppelgangers?" Thomas asked warily.

  
"If push comes to shove, we'll have to deal with them," Anger muttered, "whether or not it's done calmly comes down to them. For now, do me a favor and summon the others. Let's see if we can turn this area into some kind of temporary camp."


	6. Plans

"Emile, wake up," Andy whispered, shaking the therapist gently enough so that he wouldn't accidentally wake up the sleeping Pride next to him. The last thing he needed right now was to deal with a grumpy, protective boyfriend.

  
"Huh-wha?" Emile blinked and looked over at who was shaking him. "Andy?"

  
"We have a problem. Come on, I'll explain along the way," Andy said, helping Emile up.

  
Unbeknownst to them, two of the others were awake as well and overheard what Andy said. Once he left with Emile, one of them spoke up. "We should follow them."

  
"Patton, it's probably nothing serious," Dayd said. He was met with a pout in response.

  
"Then why wouldn't one of the kiddos come to us?" Patton asked.

  
"Knowing Andy, he probably didn't want to make you more worried than you already are," Dayd responded, putting a hand on Patton's shoulder.

  
Patton remained pouting as he looked at Dayd, "Please? Let's follow them."

  
Dayd sighed in defeat, knowing he stood no chance against a pouting Patton, "Alright, alright."

  
Quickly and silently, the two followed them, careful to hide if one of them happened to look back. True to his word, Andy told Emile about the prisoner escaping into the mines and of the evidence Deceit had seen that pointed towards Damon lying to them. This startled the two fathers; they had their own suspicions about Damon but to have confirmation unnerved them. Just what was Damon up to?

* * *

  
Thomas looked around at the " _camp_ " they set up. It wasn't much; mainly some distinctive marks in the walls that served to lead them to and from the area and some large rocks set up to act as barriers for a bit of extra security. Still, it was better than just being out in the open like sitting ducks.

  
Andy was sitting on the desk in the office, listening and watching as Teal looked over the map of the mines. He was still a bit on edge but for the most part, he seemed to have calmed down. Quietly, he watched as Teal left marks on the paper, indicating what routes they should take in order to get out.

  
Remy was acting as a look-out in case those doppelgangers happened to find them. "If those bastards even think of attacking again, they won't know what hit 'em..."

  
Roman glanced over at him, "Just remember that we need to avoid killing them."

  
"Who's idea was it to risk our lives capturing them anyway?" Remy grumbled.

  
"Group decision, remember? We need answers, preferably without any unnecessary bloodshed," Roman responded. "We are not barbarians like Insanity was."

  
A shudder ran through Remy at that name, "Gurl, " _barbarian_ " is putting it kindly."

* * *

  
Outside of the mines, things were not going well for the town. Damon smirked as the local sheriff aimed a gun at him, yelling for Damon to put his hands up. "Put my hands up? Very well then..." Raising his hands, he let them twist and grow into his familiar claws, watching as all the blood seemed to drain from the sheriff's face. "Something wrong, sir?"

  
"I-! You-!" Quickly, the sheriff looked back at his officers. "What are you waiting for?! Shoot that thing!"

  
Damon laughed as the officers readied their guns, "Oh, this is amusing!" As soon as the first shot was fired, Damon disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Just as soon, Damon reappeared behind the sheriff, catching them all off guard. With one quick movement, Damon's claws went through the sheriff's chest before retreating.

  
Watching as the sheriff's body fell to the ground in a pool of blood, he smirked and turned his attention to the officers. "Who's next?"

  
Several of them panicked and tried running away while the rest stood their ground. The few officers still there were dealt with easily. ' _Some bite wounds here, a torn limb or two there..._ ' Damon thought to himself, enjoying the bloodbath he was partaking in. ' _Time to go after the runners._ '

  
Sure enough, Damon gave chase to the last of the officers, determined to keep them from escaping. Try as they might, they just couldn't match up to Damon's supernatural abilities and fell before him. Looking around, Damon seemed to be looking for something. ' _Ah, that one will do for dinner._ ' Casually walking over to one of the corpses, Damon picked it up and retreated into a dark alley to feed.


	7. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but important.

If you were to ask Andy when his life got ten times crazier than it was before, he would point out this moment. This moment being him held against a wall by his doppelganger with a switchblade pointed at him. He and the others had gone exploring deep into the mines, in hopes of finding their former prisoner. They found him alright, along with quite a few pissed off friends of his.

  
Taking a chance, his eyes darted over to others. Other than Emile, the rest of them were basically prisoners as well, Deceit's doppelganger and some guy with a bandana around his neck keeping them from even trying to escape. Nearby, he heard Emile talking with Thomas's doppelganger and another guy he had never seen before. ' _Leave it to Emile to talk his way out of something like this..._ '

  
"I assure you, this is all one giant misunderstanding brought about by a man named Damon. While the others back at our camp believe him and his lies currently, we don't," Emile explained. "Clearly that man has ulterior motives."

  
Thomas and Courage looked at each other. They wanted to believe this guy but they had to be sure, especially with someone like Damon running around. "Mendax? Is he lying?" Thomas asked his version of Deceit.

  
Mendax looked over from where he was, having made sure to pay attention to everything the minute they started talking. "He's _not_ telling the truth."

  
"...Well?" Courage asked.

  
"Let them go." Thomas spoke loudly and clearly.

  
Andy felt his feet touch the ground as his doppelganger let go of him, pocketing the switchblade. Immediately after, he heard the words " _sorry_ " and " _nothing personal_ " uttered towards him. He just nodded his head in response, not really sure of what to say at the moment.

  
Anger crossed his arms and looked at Thomas, "We need to track down this Damon guy."

  
"Before anything," Logan spoke up, having kept to the sidelines of all the action, "we need to establish a proper method of identification between ourselves and our doppelgangers."

  
Thomas nodded, "Logan's right. What did you have in mind?"

  
"It's not the most refined method but it will do considering the situation. D1 and D2," Logan stated. Upon seeing the looks of confusion, he clarified, "D means " _Dimension_ ". For simplicity's sake, this dimension - ours - will be referred to as Dimension 1. The dimension that our doppelgangers are from will be referred to as Dimension 2. Hence, D1 and D2."

  
"Ooooh, I get it now," Thomas replied. "So basically you would be called " _D1 Logan_ " and the other you would be " _D2 Logan_ "."

  
"Essentially, yes, Thomas," Logan answered, smiling a bit at how fast he caught on.

  
After some time to think it over, the others came to an agreement that it would work well enough.

  
"...If it's _not_ alright with the rest of you, I'd prefer it if you just kept calling me by my real name," Mendax said.

  
Anger put a hand on his shoulder and grinned at him, back in good spirits, "Whatever makes you happy, lad."

  
Back at the other camp, the group was awoken by a panicked yell from Pride of all people.

  
" _Emile is gone!_ "


	8. Tension

"Oh come on! Seriously?!" Anger dodged out of the way as Pride tried to punch him.  He had gone ahead of the others in order to scout out any potential danger. What he wasn't expecting was a pissed off fox shapeshifter. Thinking quickly, Anger grabbed Pride by the back of his shoulders and held him in place, all the while Pride was struggling to free himself. "Can it already!"

  
"Let go of me ya fucking demon!" Pride snarled.

  
Rolling his eyes, Anger spoke with a stern tone of voice, "I don't know who that Damon bastard is but I'm not some damn demon!"

  
"Liar!" Pride yelled, a furious look in his eyes.

  
"Pipe down!" Anger yelled right back at him.

  
With a growl, Pride shifted back into a fox, freeing himself from Anger's grasp. Barring his teeth, the hotheaded fox lunged at Anger.

  
Anger dodged out of the way, "Last chance to knock it off!" In response, he was met with another growl.

* * *

  
After what felt like endless hours of walking, the rest of Anger's group caught up to him. Anger once more had Pride trapped in his grip, both of them looking a bit worse for wear. Pride looked like he was ready to start struggling again when the sound of footsteps and a certain voice caught his attention.

  
" _Pride_?!"

  
At the sound of Emile's voice, Pride began to calm down and looked over, "Emile?! You're alright?!"

  
Emile rushed over to Pride, Anger letting go of the fox shapeshifter once he was certain there was no further danger. Carefully, the therapist put his own hands on Pride's shoulders, "Of course I am, silly fox. What about you?"

  
Pride crossed his arms, frowning, "I had things under control."

  
"I was holding back," Anger muttered, smirking at the indignant huff he received in response.

  
Just as Pride was about to throw out a retort, he was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of his group. As soon as both groups spotted the other, a wave of tension overtook the air. Emile glanced over at Anger, who merely nodded his head in response. The therapist took one of Pride's hands in his own and pulled the confused side with him back over to their own group. Shortly after, they were followed by the Troublemakers and their versions of Dayd and Patton.

  
Anger and the rest of his family stood back as the doppelgangers were discussing what was going on in regards to everything Damon said. ' _Hopefully this all works out..._ ' Anger thought to himself.

  
"This is all a misunderstanding," Emile spoke, looking around at the group. "Damon was lying about them being demons."

  
"How do we know this isn't some kind of trap? They could be planning something for later," D2 Roman argued.

  
"I _did_ detect them lying," Deceit countered. "Damon on the other hand..."

  
"That actually brings up another thing," Emile said, raising a finger into the air as he spoke. "Where _is_ Damon currently?"

  
A silence suddenly hung over the group. That was something they hadn't even realized, having been too caught up in following Pride when he ran off to find Emile.

  
"...We saw him before we went to sleep, but when we woke up, he was gone," D2 Thomas answered, an unnerved feeling settling onto him. "...He wasn't with you guys?" The unnerved feeling only increased as Emile shook his head.

  
"The doppelgangers never heard of Damon either, so they wouldn't have had anything to do with his sudden disappearance," D2 Virgil added, sharing the same unnerved feeling as his host.

  
Deceit nodded, "I _can't_ vouch for that."

* * *

  
In the town, Damon was having some fun causing chaos now that he took down the police department. Of course, Damon's idea of fun consisted of tormenting anyone who dared to cross his path. Currently, he had gathered up a small group of people and made it seem like he was letting them go free. Once they got far enough to the edge of town, he gave chase, tearing the false hope he gave them to shreds.

  
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a lone human try to flee as fast as possible. Standing up and rotating his neck to crack it, he grinned. Quickly, Damon appeared in front of the human and looked them in the eye. Before the human could react, one of Damon's claws shot out, grabbing one of their arms.

  
"Hmm...now, what to do with you?" Damon questioned mockingly.

  
"L-let me go?" The human desperately pleaded, hoping despite everything.

  
"Wrong answer," he replied calmly. Damon tightened his grip on the human's arm and twisted it until the human dropped to their knees in pain. Kneeling down next to the human, Damon whispered, "Game over." Getting up, Damon gave the human's arm one hard pull, ripping it away from the human's body.

  
Tossing the arm aside, Damon laughed as he walked away, tracking bloody footprints behind him.


	9. The Return

Both teams were currently sitting around in a circle, discussing what they knew. The D2 team spoke about how one minute, they were on an adventure in their Thomas's imagination and the next, there was a bright flash of light. When the light died down, they had appeared in the town and subsequently met Damon. They mentioned what Damon said about the town and the locals, how they were suspicious of outsiders and that's why Damon lived in the mines.

  
As for the D1 team, they didn't know much more than the others did. The general uneasy feeling from the town was brought up. It was like a switch was flipped once it became sundown, to the point that a few of them mentioned having nightmares set in the town. Eventually, a silence overtook both groups as they tried to make sense of what little they knew.

  
Mentally, D1 Andy was arguing with himself. On one hand, he knew the rest of his family should know that his nightmares have been about Insanity. The other hand? Should he really bring up the demon when they should be focused on Damon? While in his most recent nightmare, Insanity showed up in this very town, he argued that it was just the stress of everything combining different things together while he slept.

  
Sudden footsteps coming from deeper in the mines caught everyone's attention. Anger was the first one on his feet. He tapped both Courage and Mendax on the shoulders, a sign telling them to get up and follow him. They walked down the path despite protests to the contrary about how it could be Damon. Those protests couldn't be more wrong.

* * *

  
He wasn't quite sure what was going on if he were to be honest. One minute, he's ranting about his humiliating defeat to whoever would listen and the next? He's being summoned by his former student, Damon, to some backwater town. The real kicker for him was that Damon had the nerve to summon him purely just to gloat in his face.

  
" _I'm accomplishing more than you ever did, sir_!"

  
A growl escaped him at that memory. Damon always was an annoyance from the get-go. In a fit of rage, he tried to attack Damon, only to be stopped in his tracks.

  
" _Now, is that any way to treat a former student? That's disappointing. Hmm...Oh, I know! There are some lovely old mines outside of town! I'll just keep you there until I'm done, then we can sort things out_."

  
He always did question why he put up with Damon for so many years. Sure, he showed promise and potential in the beginning but his attitude swiftly overshadowed that. ...Perhaps it was because Damon reminded him of when he was once a young demon? "Bah! Hell no! The boy wouldn't leave me alone until I agreed to mentor him! It was purely out of convenience!" A heavy feeling settled over him; as much as he denied it, he knew that he was lying to himself.

* * *

  
" _You!_ "

  
Both of them yelled it at the same time. Standing before each other were Anger and...

  
" _Insanity_!" Anger yelled, a look of rage on his face. Quickly, he rushed at the demon, aiming a punch at his face. However, Insanity was too fast and dodged out of the way.

  
"How _wonderful_ it is to see you too!" Insanity spat, venom dripping from his voice. He dodged out of the way as Courage and Mendax tried attacking him as well. "Oh, and most of your little family is here as well! Just _delightful_!"

  
With a growl, Anger managed to grab the back of Insanity's lab coat and flung him hard enough that he landed near the camp. The D2 team was startled by this sudden commotion, even more so when they realized that most of the doppelgangers had weapons drawn, all pointed at this new person. Getting up with a maniacal laugh, Insanity spoke, "Well, well, if it isn't a reunion down here!" Behind him, Anger, Courage, and Mendax appeared, each looking ready to kill the mad doctor.

  
D1 Andy kept himself looking composed but mentally, he was screaming loudly. All of those nightmares had come to fruition. Unconsciously, he gripped the handle of his pocket knife tight enough that his knuckles turned white. ' _This fucking bastard!_ '

  
Reluctantly, the tense silence was broken by D2 Thomas, "Guys, what in the world is going on? _Who_ is that?"

  
With a growl aimed towards the scientist, Anger spoke, "That is Insanity, an _actual demon_ who's supposed to be _dead_."

  
"Hmph," Insanity crossed his arms with a smirk, "I told you I would return."


	10. Interlude - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The D1 team's point of views. The D2 team will be covered in Part 2.

Insanity dodged out of the way the minute D1 Andy lunged at him. With a smirk, Insanity kicked him hard in the stomach, watching as he fell to his knees and gasped for air. The switchblade clattered on the ground near him, just out of his reach.

  
"Well now, is anyone else going to try something stupid or can I speak?" Insanity drawled out, looking bored. Before anyone could reply, Insanity was taken by surprise, suddenly shoved up against a wall by Mendax. "Oh yes, my old _test subject_. So good to see you again." Insanity's snickering was cut off by one of Mendax's hands pressing down on his throat threateningly.

  
"How the hell are you back?" Mendax growled out, making sure Insanity got a glimpse of his fangs as a painful reminder of last time. "You _weren't_ dead."

  
Insanity growled right back at Mendax, "You're right - I wasn't dead. At least, not technically."

  
" _Don't_ answer the question," Mendax demanded. "Or do I need to force it out of you?"

  
"You've been hanging around the _brainless brute_ too much. His attitude is rubbing off on you," Insanity snarked, smirking as soon as he saw one of Mendax's eyes twitching. This smirk was wiped off of his face the minute Mendax grabbed the front of his lab coat and threw him into the ground nearby, hard enough to cause cracks to appear.

  
Before Mendax could go after him, he was being held back by Courage and D1 Virgil while Anger walked over to Insanity. With a scowl, he glared down at the scientist before grabbing the demon by the arm, roughly lifting him up. Stalking down towards the room containing the "prison cell", he dragged Insanity behind him. Every struggle to escape just caused him to grip the demon's arm tighter. Even with fixing it, it wouldn't be much under normal circumstances but considering how much weaker Insanity currently was, it would do for now.

  
Later that night, the tense atmosphere returned. Mendax was off in a corner of the area, watching the two teams split into several smaller groups and talking among themselves about everything. His boyfriends had wanted to stay near him but Mendax reassured them that he was okay at the moment. Very reluctantly, they agreed and left him alone for the time being. However, he wasn't alone for long. The minute he closed his eyes to think is the minute he heard someone approach him, sitting down near him.

  
"Hey...you _not_ alright?"

  
His doppelganger. Keeping his eyes shut, he leaned his head back against the wall, "No, I'm not."

  
Deceit raised an eyebrow at him, "That _was_ a lie?"

  
Mendax merely grunted in response, "Too fucking tired to lie right now."

  
Taking a breath, Deceit spoke, "Can I _not_ ask you something?"

  
Opening his eyes, Mendax moved his head a bit to look tiredly at his doppelganger, "What?"

  
His doppelganger suddenly looked nervous, "That...that Insanity guy... he _didn't_ call you his "test subject"?"

  
Mendax growled at the mention of that. He was hoping none of the doppelgangers had heard what Insanity said. "Let me ask you something first. Your snake features - were you born with them?"

  
Deceit blinked, confused by the sudden question, " _No_? Why?"

  
"I wasn't. The scales, the eye, the fangs? They were all caused by that bastard," Mendax replied.

  
Deceit was taken aback by that, "What? What _didn't_ he do to you?"

  
"Where do I even fucking start? Knocked me out, strapped me to an operating table, kept me awake the whole time he was torturing me and forcing me to undergo his "hybridzation process", left me for dead afterward. That's just the fucking beginning. He put me through hell," Mendax said, closing his eyes and clenching his fists, trying to control his rage. "Fuck. He put my family through hell. Pops, Dad, all of them - none of them deserved what they went through."

  
Deceit was taken aback by what Mendax told him. He tried to push the immediate thoughts to the back of his mind, feeling like he would be sick if he didn't. Hesitantly, he put his hand on Mendax's shoulder, hoping it would offer at least some comfort. If it did or not, he wasn't sure but at least he could try. "You mentioned someone..."Pops"? And "Dad"?"

  
Mendax opened his eyes and unclenched his fists. Taking several deep breaths, he answered, "Pops is Anger and Dad is Courage. Without them, hell knows what kind of crazy shit Virge and I would have gotten up to by ourselves."

  
Eventually, Mendax and Deceit separated back to their own smaller groups. The minute D1 Patton saw Mendax, he had the snake hybrid wrapped in a hug. Mendax relaxed into the embrace, returning it. "Are you okay?"

  
"As long as the rest of you are, then I will be," Mendax answered tiredly. By now, he just wanted to cuddle up to his boyfriends and try to get some sleep. He let himself be led by the hand over to the other three and quietly sat down. In an instant, D1 Roman was behind him, the prince's arms wrapped around him protectively. On either side of himself, D1 Virgil and D1 Logan rested against him, his own arms wrapped around each of them. As for D1 Patton, he was using Mendax's lap as a pillow, smiling up at him.

  
"Virge? Dax?" D1 Roman asked quietly.

  
"Yeah Ro?" D1 Virgil asked while Mendax merely looked up at the prince.

  
"If..." he took a breath to calm himself, "...if Insanity tries anything against either of you, don't hesitate to tell us. We won't let that stand."

  
"Agreed. Your safety and well being are highly important to us," D1 Logan added, turning his head to glance over at them as he spoke.

  
"I will physically fight him if he tries anything," D1 Patton said in a stern voice. "I mean it."

* * *

  
Courage walked over to Anger, the other side sitting next to the door to the room containing Insanity. Sitting down beside Anger, Courage maneuvered themselves so Anger was now leaning back against his chest. Wrapping his arms around Anger's waist, Courage rested his chin on Anger's shoulder. "You alright Aiden?"

  
Anger let out a frustrated sigh, "You mean besides the fact that I have two headaches to deal with and one of them should be _dead_?"

  
Courage merely hummed in response, "I know the feeling. Still, you should try to calm down before your temper gets the better of you."

  
"Yeah, yeah, I know Arlo," Anger said, gazing up at him. "Kind of hard right now, all things considered."

  
In response, Courage placed a kiss on Anger's forehead, "Try to get some sleep, dear. You'll feel a lot better if you do."

  
Anger nodded his head and closed his eyes, feeling safe in Courage's presence.

* * *

  
"You alright?"

  
D1 Andy looked up and saw D1 Remy standing over him. "Physically? I think so."

  
D1 Remy sat down next to him, taking a sip from his ever present Starbucks cup. "Mentally?"

  
He was met with a single "ha" at that. "All over the fucking place right now," D1 Andy muttered.

  
"Because of the nightmares, right?" D1 Remy asked, putting his cup down next to him.

  
"More like visions instead of nightmares," D1 Andy groaned, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "I didn't fucking ask for this, you know? Just like I didn't ask to be recruited for guard work in the Imagination."

  
D1 Remy pat his friend on the back, not really knowing how to best go about comforting him. "Life can be an ass at times. Sometimes ya gotta just...grab it and make it your bitch."

  
The other figment snickered at what he just heard. "Making life your bitch. Nice advice."

  
D1 Remy shrugged in response, a smirk on his face, "Hey, it got you to laugh at least. That's better than getting lost in your own mind."

  
"Yeah, I suppose so."

* * *

  
D1 Pryce was doing his best not to look over in the direction of D1 Andy and D1 Remy. It didn't bother him that their leader spent the most time with the sleep figment. Or that it seemed so easy for said figment to get their leader's attention. He was fine, damn it.

  
"Someone's jealous," D1 Teal said, causing the other figment to glare at him.

  
"I am _not_ jealous," D1 Pryce retorted. In response, the teacher just rolled his eyes and snuggled closer to D1 Dayd.

  
"I can see it easily," the teacher figment replied. "Any time Remy gets too..."handsy" with Andy, you end up glaring."

  
"We can both see it," D1 Dayd remarked. "We also see the look you get when Andy is alone."

  
D1 Pryce was blushing at this point, whether from embarrassment or anger, they couldn't tell. "Stay out of my love life."

  
"If you'd just tell him how you feel then we wouldn't have to bug you," D1 Teal said with a shrug while D1 Dayd just nodded in agreement.

  
"I swear, both of you are insufferable sometimes."

* * *

  
D1 Thomas waited for everyone to fall asleep before he got up. His doppelganger followed him over to the room where Insanity was being held. Quietly, he opened the door, careful not to wake up Courage and Anger. Ushering his doppelganger into the room, he followed, closing the door behind him.

  
"Insanity, we need to talk." D1 Thomas demanded, walking over to the cell bars while his doppelganger stood in front of the door.

  
Insanity looked up from where he was sitting. The minute he realized who was there, he let out a growl.

  
"I have _nothing_ to say to _you_ , Thomas."


	11. Interlude - Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The D2 team's side of things.

Deceit made his way back over to the Troublemakers, still shaken up by what Mendax told him. Greed was holding D2 Remy's Starbucks cup out of his reach while keeping him away with his hand. D2 Virgil was clearly trying not to laugh at the sight while D2 Andy just shook his head.

  
"Shouldn't have called him a gecko again," their leader said.

  
"Exactly!" Greed yelled, sticking his tongue out at D2 Remy.

  
"Whatever! Give me back my coffee! I need my caffeine!" D2 Remy shouted, making a lunge for it. However, he was once more kept away by Greed.

  
"More like you _don't_ need help," Deceit said with a smirk, making his presence known.

  
D2 Virgil snickered at that, high-fiving the other side as he sat down. D2 Remy, meanwhile, decided to act like he was offended by the remark. "Aw hell naw, gurl! You did not just insult me!" That got a proper laugh out of the rest of them and Greed finally handed the cup back to the figment.

  
D2 Andy just shook his head, "Dork." Smirking slightly at the offended "hey!", he looked at Deceit. "So, did you find out anything about that lunatic?"

  
"Let's _not_ put it this way - they weren't lying when they called him a demon," Deceit answered, a chill running up his spine as he said that.

  
Looks of concern flashed across their faces. Sure, they dealt with their fair share of monsters from the Imagination, and of course there was the whole lie about their doppelgangers being demons, but an _actual_ one? This didn't bode well with any of them. In an unspoken agreement, the five huddled together, staying as close as possible to one another for the feeling of warmth and security.

* * *

  
Pride knew the look on Emile's face - the therapist wanted to talk with the mad scientist. " _No_."

  
Emile looked over at him with a confused look, "Excuse me?"

  
"I _know_ that look on your face. You're not talking to that lunatic," Pride grumbled. "It's too dangerous."

  
The therapist sighed and shook his head, "He's currently behind bars with at least two people keeping an eye on him."

  
"Still too dangerous," Pride muttered. "You saw it yourself. The minute he showed up, those guys had weapons drawn."

  
An idea suddenly came to mind, causing Emile to smile slightly, "How about you come with me?" He was met with a look of confusion in response.

  
"... _What_?" Pride finally asked.

  
"You're my fox in shining armor. If anyone could keep me safe from Insanity, it would be _you_ ," Emile said, a bright smile on his face.

  
Pride felt himself blush as his resistance started to weaken. In Pride's opinion, Emile was too damn precious for his own good. Begrudgingly, he muttered out a few words.

  
"What was that, dear?" Emile asked.

  
That did it; Pride was powerless against Emile and they both knew it. "I'll go with you."

  
The therapist smiled and kissed Pride's cheek, "Thank you my darling fox." This caused Pride to turn into a blushing, stuttering mess in response.

* * *

  
" _What are you doing?_ "

  
D2 Logan looked over at his boyfriend, "Pardon?"

  
D2 Teal walked over to him and took a notebook out of the side's hands, "Where'd you find this?"

  
He huffed slightly at that, "I was looking through that; I found it in one of the many tunnels. It appears to belong to Damon."

  
At that, the figment handed the book back and sat down next to him, "Hopefully he didn't put some kind of curse on it."

  
"Doubtful. If he did then it most likely would have taken effect immediately," D2 Logan stated as he looked through the book carefully. "I have found something of importance."

  
D2 Teal blinked and looked over his shoulder, "What is it?"

  
D2 Logan pointed to one page in particular that had splotches of what he hoped was just red ink covering it. "Damon references Insanity by name several times among his ranting. Clearly, they used to know each other..."

* * *

  
"Am I the only one out of us three that's unnerved by this?" Lust asked.

  
D2 Roman and D2 Pryce glanced at each other worriedly before looking at Lust. "Could you be more specific?" D2 Pryce asked, sitting down next to Lust.

  
"We have a literal _demon_ with us and the idea is to keep him in a prison cell? The same cell that was broken out of before?" Lust sighed, trying to calm down a bit.

  
D2 Roman sat down on the other side of Lust, putting an arm around the other side's shoulders, "...It's not ideal but it's the best possible thing on such short notice."

  
"Roman is right in this case. Besides, the others have dealt with this fiend before so I wouldn't be too worried just yet," D2 Pryce added, wrapping his own arm around Lust's waist.

  
"Of course I'm right. When am I not?" D2 Roman asked, smirking.

  
"You _really_ _don't_ want me to answer that," D2 Pryce shot back, causing Lust to laugh and an offended look to cross the other prince's face.

* * *

  
D2 Dayd was laying against a wall with his eyes closed. His plan was to try and get some sleep before dealing with everything in the morning. However, this wasn't going to happen any time soon with him being aware of D2 Patton's nervous pacing. Opening his eyes, he watched his boyfriend. "Pat, come here."

  
D2 Patton looked over at him. He was sitting up properly now and had his arms out, offering a hug. Gratefully, D2 Patton nearly ran over and took up the offer. He cuddled as close as he could to his boyfriend, relaxing at the feeling of a hand rubbing his back.

  
"What's bothering you?" D2 Dayd asked, resting his chin on D2 Patton's shoulder.

  
"I..." He trailed off, trying to think of what to say. "...Everything."

  
"You want to talk about it?" The figment received a nod in response.

  
"Just...I don't want anyone getting hurt," D2 Patton said, clinging to the figment's shirt. "It's bad enough when one of the others gets hurt in the mindscape but...this is something else entirely."

  
A sigh came from D2 Dayd as he thought of the right words to say in this situation. "Pat, I'm not gonna lie - there is a chance someone could get hurt." He held up his hand before the side could interrupt him, "But, I don't think you should run yourself ragged with worrying. Other than that...minor setback from earlier, things turned out fine so far."

  
The memory from earlier that day caused a shudder to run through D2 Patton's body. "I'm sorry."

  
A look of confusion appeared on the figment's face, "For what?"

  
"I'm supposed to be the happy one who never worries about anything..." D2 Patton looked down.

  
"Hey, hey, look at me," D2 Dayd said, tilting his boyfriend's head up. "There is nothing to be sorry for. No one is happy all the time and that's completely fine."

  
D2 Patton didn't answer, instead nuzzling into the figment's neck, seeking comfort that he was perfect okay with providing.

* * *

  
When D2 Logan showed D2 Thomas the book he had found, in particular the pages that mentioned Insanity, he took it from the side and said that he'd be back with it shortly. His logical side looked ready to protest until D2 Teal put a hand on his shoulder, dragging him away. With the book in hand, he approached his doppelganger.

  
Upon being shown the pages in question, his doppelganger had gotten up and said that he needed to talk to Insanity. Reluctantly, D2 Thomas followed him. He figured it would be safer for the other man if he was accompanied by someone, safety in numbers after all. Quietly, they opened the door to the room where Insanity was being held, careful not to wake up the two sleeping sides right next to it. As soon as it was closed, he stood in front of it nervously, arms crossed as he tried to appear calm.

  
"Insanity, we need to talk," he heard his doppelganger demand in a stern voice. It seemed like he felt no fear towards the demon. In response, a growl was heard.

  
"I have _nothing_ to say to _you_ , Thomas."


	12. Interlude - Part 3

"I think you do," D1 Thomas stated, shoving the open notebook through the bars. With a growl and a suspicious look on his face, Insanity took the book and started reading. After several minutes, he calmly shut the book and just stood there silently. "Insanity...?"

  
"That bastard!" Insanity suddenly threw the book to the ground. "I took him in as my student and he has the nerve to plot against me?!"

  
D1 Thomas stepped back from the sudden outburst while his doppelganger's eyes widened. "Insanity..."

  
"I could have left him to fend for himself as a child but I didn't! I raised him! I cared for him and this is what he does in return?!" Insanity was pacing around the cell, ranting without a care as to who or what heard him.

  
"Insanity-" D1 Thomas was cut off by Insanity snapping his head over to look at him. The demon marched up to the bars and shoved the book back to him. "What...?"

  
"I don't need this now. Do what you want with it and _get out_ ," Insanity growled.

  
D1 Thomas grabbed the book and looked at the demon, "We still need to talk. Where did you even come from to begin with? Why did you do any of the stuff you did and why did you try to possess me?"

  
Thomas's doppelganger visibly paled at the word " _possess_ ". Demonic possession was something that he did not need to think about, especially in these circumstances.

  
Insanity rolled his eyes, "If it will get you to leave quicker... I'm from a realm inhabited by fellow demons."

  
D1 Thomas raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean by realm?"

  
The scientist rolled his eyes, "There's a surprising semblance of some truth in a few of those anime shows you like to watch." Both of the humans were taken by surprise at that. Seeing as neither looked like they were going to interrupt him, he continued. "As for the " _whys_ "? I don't have any justification for that and I'm not going to even bother with the impossible feat of thinking of one - just know that you are _not_ my target now; _Damon is_. Now, _leave_." With that, Insanity turned his back to both of them, listening as the door opened and closed once more.

* * *

  
The next day, Anger and Courage went to check on Insanity. However, they were shocked upon seeing that the demon was gone. Instead, there was a makeshift tunnel in one of the cell walls. Upon closer inspection and investigation, they found that the tunnel led into the rest of the mines.

  
"That sneaky son of a bitch!" Anger yelled, punching his fist into his hand.

  
"We'd better go wake the others. Come on!" Courage grabbed Anger's hand, leading themselves back through the tunnel.

  
The minute they were through the doors, Anger shouted loudly for the others to wake up. After several startled yells and people scrambling around to get up, everyone was looking at the two. "Aiden, Arlo, what's going on?" D1 Thomas asked.

  
"Insanity's gone!" _Courage_.

  
"That bastard dug a fucking tunnel into the mines!" _Anger_.

  
While everyone else was clearly trying to keep from freaking out, causing the atmosphere to become tense, D1 Thomas was focused on something else. ' _Just know that you are not my target now; Damon is_.'Finally, he spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Finding Insanity is important but listen to me. First and foremost, getting out of here is the main thing we need to do."

  
"...He's right," D1 Andy said, his arms crossed. "The longer we stay here, the more we're like sitting ducks."

  
"The map of the mines is still in the operator room," D1 Logan added. "We can use that to find our way out of here."

* * *

  
Insanity hissed as sunlight hit his face. He had just finished breaking through the rocks Damon had put in front of one of the exits. Walking in the direction of the town, he could see that Damon was having a field day. Rubble and corpses were strewn about the streets, fire and smoke drifted aimlessly into the air, and dried blood was smeared on the ground and buildings.

  
"Well, sir, I was honestly expecting you to have escaped sooner. You're slipping," a voice from above said.

  
Insanity merely looked up, a deep scowl on his face. He glared at the figure as it descended, landing on the ground gracefully, black leathery wings folding behind his back. " _Damon_ ," he growled out.

  
"Hmph. _Insanity_ ," Damon answered him with a smirk. He gestured with his arms to the sight around them. "Well? Quite impressive, don't you think?"

  
Insanity refused to answer, his glare intensifying as his only response.

  
"Oh come now sir, don't give me that look. I _was_ going to spare you, that was at least until you showed me how utterly _weak_ you really are," Damon said.

  
"Your previous " _death_ " only solidified that."


	13. Fight: Interrupted

Near the mines, cracking could be heard. With one final loud noise, several rocks that were blocking another of the exits were sent flying outwards. In their place stood Anger, his fist out, having just punched his way to freedom. Rubbing his shoulder, he stepped aside to let the others out into the fresh air and sunlight.

  
However, this moment of relief wouldn't last. Immediately, their attention was drawn to the smell of smoke in the distance. They could just barely make out the town, fires raging as the smoke clouds blotted out the sun. A stunned silence fell upon them all as they witnessed this.

  
In the town, a battle was raging between two powerful foes. Damon and Insanity were fighting, claws and teeth aimed at the other. Both were covered in blood; whether their own or the other's, neither could tell. What was clear is that Damon had the upper hand in the fight. While Insanity had more experience, he was subconsciously holding back against his former student. Meanwhile, Damon had no qualms with fighting his former teacher.

  
Damon lunged at Insanity, only for the other demon to teleport out of the way. Reappearing behind him, Insanity kicked Damon in the back, sending him face first into the ground. Pushing himself up with a growl, Damon waited until Insanity was close enough and grabbed one of his ankles, tripping him to the ground.

  
Standing above him, Damon placed his boot on Insanity's chest and started to press down slowly but steadily. Insanity growled and tried to claw at Damon's leg. However, Damon grabbed Insanity's wrists in each of his hands and held them still as he continued to press his foot down. The scientist winced and gritted his teeth, determined not to scream out in pain.

  
"Your previous " _death_ " has weakened you, _Insanity_! You are no longer my teacher, my superior," Damon growled out, relishing in the scream that he finally drew out of the other demon. "You don't even deserve such a feared name anymore, _Gunther_!"

  
Before Damon could finish his job, he was tackled to the ground by a lion. The lion swiped at Damon's face, leaving some bleeding wounds behind. Quickly, Damon teleported out from under the lion and touched his face, growling at the pain. The next thing he knew, a wolf and a bear were standing beside the lion. "What the fu-?"

  
"Shouldn't have lied to us Damon," the lion - D2 Andy - growled out.

  
"Fucking shapeshifters..." Damon muttered as he readied his claws. He started pacing around, looking at them, forcing them to focus on where he was. With a smirk, Damon lunged forward towards the wolf. The wolf - D2 Pryce - barred his teeth and jumped at Damon. However, Damon was too quick and placed both of his hands on the wolf's head, pushing him to the ground and using him as a living spring board to get past D2 Andy and the bear - D2 Dayd.

  
As soon as Insanity got up, Damon landed on the other demon's back, digging his claws into him. With a smirk, he leaned down quickly to Insanity's ear. "I'm not done with you yet." Before his other opponents could react, he teleported himself and Insanity away, just as the others managed to catch up with the group.

  
Insanity yelled as his bleeding back hit a wall. Looking up, he could make out what looked to be cell bars. ' _Oh, how ironic..._ ' He thought tiredly to himself. A noise alerted him to Damon's prescence. The other demon was locking the cell with a smirk on his face. "Where...are we...?"

  
Damon didn't even bother to look at him. "The jail; swiped the keys off of the sheriff's corpse. Now excuse me while I go look up a spell to electrify those bars. After that, I have some pests to properly dispose of." With that, Damon teleported away once more, leaving Insanity alone.


	14. Memories

"Guys! What happened?!"

  
The three figments looked over as D2 Thomas and his doppelganger ran over, the rest of the group following behind. It was D2 Dayd that spoke first, "We found Damon - he and Insanity were in the middle of a fight."

  
"More like Damon stabbed him in the back - literally," D2 Andy remarked, D2 Pryce nodding his head in agreement.

  
A look of concern flashed across D1 Thomas's face but was just as quickly gone before anyone noticed it. Keeping his voice steady, he asked, "Where are they now?"

  
"We don't know, Damon teleported himself and Insanity away," D2 Pryce answered.

  
Unbeknownst to any of them, Damon wasn't as gone as they thought. He was in an alley, lurking in the shadows, a smirk on his face. In his hands was another notebook, one with hastily written spells in it. One of them was circled in red ink and was labeled: _mind control_. ' _This is gonna be entertaining_.'

* * *

  
Insanity - _Gunther_ \- looked around and saw that he was no longer in the jail cell, or even the town for that matter. In fact, he had no idea where he was. He just knew that everything was dark and...rocky? ' _The mines? What, did Damon mistake an electricity spell for a teleportation spell? I taught him better than that_.'

  
As he took a step forward, the ground beneath him crumbled away, sending him falling into a seemingly endless pit. All at once, images assaulted his mind. They ranged from him discovering Damon knocking at the door to his home years ago, begging for the elder demon to take him in as a student to far more recent events. These images were all too familiar to him. ' _Memories...?_ '

  
The images faded away as one in particular took center stage in his mind. It was of him as a child. With him someone he hadn't thought about in years. ' _Great-grandfather?_ ' His grandfather was a strong demon, one that commanded respect with his mere presence. As a child, he had completely admired his great-grandfather and wished to be just like him.

  
This memory was clear as day to him. It was the day that he had asked about their lineage and who _Insanity_ was. His great-grandfather told him how Insanity was the name of a distant ancestor, one of great power and prestige among demon-kind.

  
"Other demons feared him and rightfully so! Back then it was survival of the fittest and he was a champion among them! None of this working with others we have today!"

  
"Demons used to take pride in their strength! They used to take pride in terrorizing those beneath us! Now we just have pathetic weaklings working with each other and even _humans_!"

  
Gunther winced as the memory faded. It was sinking in just how much his childhood admiration of his great-grandfather, and by extension his ancestor, screwed with him. Suddenly, he felt something that he hadn't in a long, long time. This feeling engulfed him and felt constricting; he began to feel dizzy and sick.

  
Flashes of his more recent..." _life_ " passed through his mind. The moment he managed to infiltrate Thomas's mind without being detected felt like a victory to him at the time. Now, it just served to disturb him. Then, there was his possession of Courage and using him against his own family. As he remembered this, the sick feeling started to worsen.

  
The memories began to come to him more and more rapidly -he physical torture he had put both Virgil and Deceit through, the mental torment he inflicted on Anger, the countless lives he threw away with his hybrid projects... Just as he thought it was over, more memories swept through his mind - the injuries he caused to the light sides and the figments, how he tried to kill every last one of them, how he tried to possess _Thomas_...

  
Suddenly, he was jolted awake and he looked around, gasping desperately for air. He had been asleep in the jail this whole time, Damon nowhere to be seen. As he kept gasping, he started shaking, a sick feeling creeping into the pit of his stomach. Curling up into a ball, his hands gripped his hair, pulling hard at it. There was a consistent wetness rolling down his face but he was too caught up in his own mind to realize what it was. The only things he could even begin to comprehend at the moment?

  
_Guilt and regret_.


	15. D1: Andy vs. Pryce

Gunther looked up as noise suddenly erupted outside. Forcing himself up, he hissed as his wounds gave a sharp reminder that they were still there. He looked at the bars and could see slight sparks of electricity dancing along them. ' _Not getting out that way...gotta focus_.'

  
In the rest of town, several battles were raging on while Damon stood back and watched. He currently had several of his would-be opponent under his control. Originally, he was going to have some semblance of reason and order behind who he controlled but then an idea came to him. Why not just pick and choose randomly?

  
_D1: Andy and Pryce_

  
"Woah!" D1 Andy dodged out of the way as D1 Pryce tried to strike him with his sword.

  
"Stand still!" The mind controlled figment growled out. He readjusted his hands and charged at his friend, swinging the sword once more. However, he once again missed and the sword clanged against one of the buildings.

  
"Yeah, I don't think so," D1 Andy snarked. The minute D1 Pryce was distracted by his sword meeting the building, he took the opportunity to drop kick the prince. Once he was down, the sword was also swiftly kicked away from both of them. "How about you start fighting fair now?"

  
"Fine then ruffian," D1 Pryce glared at him as he got up. As soon as he was back on his feet, he tackled D1 Andy to the ground. He aimed a punch at the other figment's face, only for it to be blocked. The prince yelled as his wrist was twisted and the minute D1 Andy got the chance, he kicked D1 Pryce off of himself.

  
Thinking fast, D1 Andy lunged at the prince, forcing him into a headlock. "Dude seriously, you need to fight against this damn spell!" In response, D1 Pryce elbowed him in the stomach, forcing him to let go. D1 Andy stumbled back, wincing a bit from the unexpected blow.

  
"I've had it up to here with your inane ramblings," D1 Pryce said, rushing towards the sword, making a quick grab for it.

  
"Shit," D1 Andy muttered, pulling out his switchblade. He didn't want to resort to this but he didn't have much choice currently. "Just know that this isn't anything personal."

  
He rushed towards D1 Pryce, ducking out of the way of swings from the sword. The minute he saw an opening, he tried to stab his friend in the arm with the switchblade. However, the other figment caught on fast enough and returned the drop kick that was used on himself previously. D1 Andy growled as he looked up, the sword pointed right at him.

  
"Any last words?" D1 Pryce asked, glaring down at him.

  
D1 Andy stared him down, "More like a question. The hell is your problem with Remy?"

  
The prince was taken aback by the sudden question, " _What_?"

  
"You heard me. Remy noticed you glaring at him whenever we hang out anymore," D1 Andy responded, a defiant look on his face. ' _Maybe I can get through the spell to him this way, and get some answers while I'm at it._ '

  
D1 Pryce growled and took a step back, "None of your business!"

  
D1 Andy took the chance and got up, picking up his switchblade along the way. "I'm the _leader_ , remember? It damn well _is_ my business." Something, a look of recognition perhaps, crossed the prince's face briefly upon hearing D1 Andy call himself the leader. This gave the other figment hope that what he was doing would work. "Besides, Remy's my best friend damn it!"

  
The prince gripped his sword tight and suddenly charged at him. "Oh shit," D1 Andy dodge rolled out of the way as the sword came down, hitting the ground. Seizing the opportunity, he jumped on D1 Pryce's back, knocking him to the ground and forcing the prince to let go of the sword once more. However, the prince reacted quicker than he expected and flipped them around so D1 Andy was on his back, pinned to the ground with D1 Pryce glaring down at him.

  
"Seriously? Come on, think of all the times we've fought _with_ each other, not against each other," D1 Andy tried to reason.

  
Another flash of recognition crossed the prince's face briefly. Growling, he shook his head, "Only a matter of convenience!"

  
However, the other figment could see he was getting through to him, "Hell, _you're_ the one who gave me my switchblade, _remember_?"

  
The grip D1 Pryce had on his leader started to loosen slightly, " _I_..."

  
"Come on, I know you. You're a lot stronger than some dumb spell," D1 Andy urged.

  
The prince winced as pain suddenly shot through his head. He let go of the other figment and hissed as the pain intensified. It was like his mind was at war with itself and he only vaguely felt D1 Andy's hands on his shoulders.

  
"Pryce?... _Pryce_?!"

  
All at once, it was like an explosion went off in his head, the pain near unbearable as he gasped for air. The feeling of dark magic fled his body as his thoughts rapidly returned to normal. Desperately, he tried to stand up but all he managed to do was stumble and fall. However, his body never hit the ground like he expected. Instead, he felt someone holding him carefully.

  
Glancing up tiredly, he managed to utter a single word, " _Andy_...?"

  
He received a nod in response and could feel exhaustion start to overwhelm him. The prince tried to fight against it. ' _Now is not the time for sleep!_ '

  
"Calm down, Pryce. _I got you_."

  
With those reassuring words, the prince gave up his battle and let sleep overtake him.


	16. Anger, Courage, Insanity

Gunther gasped as he appeared outside of town, the teleportation having taken more out of his injured body than he thought it would. Collapsing onto his hands and knees, he bit back a shout as pain shot through his chest. There was no doubt now that there was a cracked rib or two due to Damon. A loud noise nearby distracted him enough to ignore the pain for the time being as he forced himself to his feet.

Slowly making his way back to the edge of town, he saw the heroes fighting among themselves. _'Damon's work no doubt._ '

  
Courage grabbed Anger's arms, holding them behind his back. " _Aiden_..."

  
Anger growled in response, struggling to free himself, "Let go of me _or else_."

  
Courage shook his head, tightening his grip, " _No_! You didn't give up on me, I'm _not_ giving up on you!"

  
Before Anger could respond, there was a flash of dark energy nearby and an all-too familiar figure was standing there panting. Courage was taken aback by the sudden appearance and Anger took the opportunity to escape his grasp. Rage flared through him as he recognized the newcomer and on instinct, a red aura surrounded him. " _Insanity_!"

  
Gunther looked up, startled by the sudden yell, "Aw fuck." He dodged out of the way of a kick that was aimed at his face. The demon then jumped away, Anger following his every step. Fighting defensively wasn't something that Gunther was used to but at the moment, it was all he could do in his weakened state. Besides, going on the offensive would just make things even worse, a no-win situation.

  
He blocked several punches with his arm, grunting in pain from each impact. Taking a chance, he glanced briefly at Courage. Gunther could tell from the look on his face that he was conflicted on what he should do, not that the demon could blame him. Suddenly, Anger was out of his line of sight and a sharp pain shot through his already injured back as he felt a kick connect with it. With a yell, Gunther hit the ground with a hard thud and struggled to get back up.

  
Just as he got to his knees, another kick left him lying on the ground once more. Anger put his foot on Gunther's back as a warning, not pressing down just yet. With a growl, he spoke, "You have a lot of nerve coming back here."

  
Gasping from the pain he felt, Gunther responded, "We...we have...the same enemy! _Damon_ -!" A scream was ripped from his throat as Anger pressed his foot down, hard.

  
"The only enemy here is _you_!" Anger yelled.

  
"Aiden, _stop_!" Courage tackled Anger to the ground, a panicked look on his face. "You're not like this! You're not a cold-blooded sadist!"

  
Anger growled, barring his teeth, "Get off of me!"

  
"I know, more than anyone, that you have every right to be pissed off at Insanity! So do I! But this is Damon's spell controlling you!" Courage yelled, wincing as Anger glared at him.

  
Gunther gasped as he finally got up. The pain threatened to overwhelm him but he fought against it. "L-listen to him! Damon is against all of us!"

  
Anger focused on Gunther and teleported out of Courage's hold. Reappearing in front of the demon, Anger grabbed him by the throat and slammed him as hard as he could against one of the buildings. Taking pleasure from the resulting scream, Anger spoke, "Why the fuck should I believe a word you say?"

  
"You-you _shouldn't_ ," Gunther managed to choke out, "I admit that. But f-for everyone's sake...at least listen to _Courage_!"

  
"Aiden," Courage demanded, walking towards them both, " _let him go_."

  
Anger refused, tightening his grip on Gunther's neck. In turn, Gunther began to struggle, gripping at Anger's wrists weakly. Gunther could feel the tears from earlier return but he didn't give a shit. " _Please_.." he managed to gasp out, "... _I'm sorry_..."

  
Those words stunned Courage, stopping him just as he went to reach for Anger. However, it didn't matter as Anger felt himself let go of Gunther, watching as he slid down to the ground. His mind was racing as everything came rushing back to him. Between Courage refusing to fight him and now this sudden turn from Insanity, the spell stood no chance at controlling him any longer. Unbeknownst to him, he was currently in far better shape than D1 Pryce was.

  
"A-Aiden?" Courage asked, touching Anger's shoulder gently.

  
Anger looked at him, shock on his face, "Arlo?" He was met with a hug from the other side, which he shakily returned. After a few moments, the two broke apart and turned their attention to Insanity. Both of them kneeled down in front of him, studying him for any signs of a trick. However, due to experience, they quickly found none.

  
"What the hell did you say?" Anger asked.

  
"I-I'm sorry," Gunther replied, gasping in pain every so often. "I'm sorry...for everything. For tormenting...the two of you...your family...Thomas. I know...I know I fucked up...and that I can't fix it. Do whatever you...whatever you want to me...just please... _stop Damon_." Finally, Gunther was given a small reprieve from the pain as exhaustion took over.

  
Anger and Courage glanced at each other, debating what they should do.

  
"...We can't just leave him here," Courage said firmly.

  
"After everything he did..." Anger trailed off.

  
"Aiden, you heard him just as well as I did," Courage responded. "You heard the pain in his voice, the sorrow, the utter hopelessness."

  
Anger was silent, mentally arguing with himself. On one hand, he wanted to give into the trait he represented, to just leave him there to suffer. But on the other hand, he heard Courage's words echo in his mind, ' _You're not a cold-blooded sadist!_ '. Finally, Anger let out a sigh and hoped he wouldn't regret this decision.

  
"Aiden...?" Courage asked.

  
Carefully, Anger picked up the unconscious demon. "He's coming with us."


	17. Debate

"Tom!"

  
D1 Thomas looked up from where he was sitting. He and the others, the ones who weren't currently fighting, had retreated into one of the abandoned buildings. "Aiden?! You're alright?!" That caught everyone else's attention and the minute they saw Anger and Courage appear, they felt relief wash over them...at least until they saw who Anger was carrying.

  
"What-?!" Mendax and D1 Virgil were both cut off by Roman, who had his sword pointed at the unconscious demon in Anger's arms.

  
" _Why_ is that vile fiend with you?!" D1 Roman demanded to know.

  
Anger rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Put the damn sword away, lad. He's unconscious, he clearly can't do anything right now."

  
"It could be a trick!" D1 Roman protested. "That's exactly something he would do!"

  
"It's _not_ a trick," Courage interrupted, "...we saw it for ourselves."

  
"Dad...?" D1 Virgil asked hesitantly.

  
"We'll explain after we get Insanity patched up," Courage said. Upon seeing D1 Roman about to protest again, " _End of discussion_."

* * *

  
"He apologized?! That _doesn't_ change what he's done!" D1 Virgil yelled, pulling his hoodie closer to himself.

  
Courage was doing his best to keep himself calm. As much as he wanted to comfort the anxious side, he stayed by Anger to keep him from doing anything rash. " _We_ know that, _he_ knows that - _he said it himself_ that he knows that. Right now we have a bigger problem to deal with - _Damon_."

  
D1 Patton pulled D1 Virgil into a comforting embrace, whispering something in his ear. Whatever it was, it seemed to work in starting to calm him down. "Guys please, Arlo is right. Insanity isn't the problem right now."

  
"Damon knows Insanity - it all comes back to him again!" D1 Roman argued. "He is indeed the problem right now!"

  
"Roman, if we were to follow that line of thinking, then it would lead to a slippery slope," D1 Logan spoke up.

  
D1 Roman blinked, looking over at the logical side, "What?"

  
"Your argument is that since Damon knows Insanity, the blame falls on him. By that reasoning, since Insanity was killed the first time around, that is what presumably got Damon's attention to begin with. If he wasn't, then this particular situation wouldn't be happening, and so on and so forth," D1 Logan explained.

* * *

  
Mendax kept quiet during the whole thing, staying by Thomas off in a corner of the room they were in. "Thomas?" Mendax asked quietly.

  
"Hmm?" D1 Thomas looked up at Mendax.

  
"What _isn't_ your thoughts on this chaos?" Mendax questioned.

  
"I...I don't know. I know what everyone is _expecting_ me to be feeling right now but...I don't know how I'm feeling," D1 Thomas answered. "Yeah, Insanity hurt a lot of people, all of us included but...it's not in me to not give someone a second chance."

  
Mendax closed his eyes as he thought about everything up to this point. He was ticked off, yes, but he was also...worried? Tired? The lying side couldn't place his finger on it.

  
"Mendax?" D1 Thomas shook his arm gently, "You okay?"

  
Mendax opened his eyes and sighed, "I don't- I just want this mess with Damon to be over. If it _doesn't_ mean working with Insanity to do so, then so be it."

  
D1 Thomas looked concerned, "You-? Are you sure?"

  
"I _don't_ want to talk with him once he's awake. Otherwise, yes," Mendax answered.


	18. D2: Checking Up

On the other side of town, the rest of the D1 team as well the D2 team were hiding out in an office building. They had gotten separated from the others during all the fights that broke out. D2 Thomas looked around the building, taking the role of leader for the time being. Out of them, most of the figments were out like lights, having gotten targeted by Damon's random spell casting. Seeing his sides forced to fight against their loved ones was...nerve-racking, to put it lightly.

  
The only ones who didn't fall to the mind control spell were Emile and D2 Remy. D2 Remy claimed even magic couldn't " _handle him_ ". As for Emile, none of them were really sure why he wasn't affected but they all just kind of assumed that it had something to do with his job as a therapist and maybe also something to do with Pride. Not that they would say it out loud to the fox, his ego was big enough already.

  
Quietly, he checked each occupied room of the building. The first room he checked had the troublemakers hanging out there. D2 Virgil and Deceit were staying by D2 Andy, waiting for him to wake up. Greed was stuck sitting on the floor, D2 Remy using his legs as a pillow while the figment tried to distract himself with his phone.

  
"How is he?" D2 Thomas asked.

  
The four glanced up at him, all of them looking tired. "He _hasn't_ been tossing and turning in his sleep for a while," Deceit answered.

  
"Pretty sure he was having a nightmare," D2 Virgil muttered, backing up what Deceit just said.

  
D2 Thomas frowned and sighed, "You guys look like you need sleep as well." He held up his hand when it looked like they were about to protest, "It'll be fine, I don't think Damon is even looking for us right now."

  
The next room he checked had D2 Patton cuddled up to D2 Dayd, who had clearly just woken up. D2 Logan was sitting opposite of them, an unconscious D2 Teal laying against him. A small hiss alerted him to two more people in the room. D1 Teal was sitting in an office chair while D1 Dayd was taking care of several cuts on his arm.

  
"What happened to your arm?" D2 Thomas asked, drawing attention to himself as he walked over to the two.

  
D1 Teal winced as the bandages touched the cuts. "Sorry," D1 Dayd muttered, focused on the task at hand.

  
The teacher looked at D2 Thomas before nodding over at his doppelganger, "The otter's claws were sharper than they looked."

  
D2 Logan frowned at that, "I'll make sure he apologizes to you once he wakes up."

  
The figment merely shook his head, "Forget it, he was out of his mind at the time."

  
After making sure everyone was okay, D2 Thomas moved on. Down the hall, he heard a couple of people talking. Upon getting closer, he could make out the voices to be D2 Roman and Lust.

  
"He hasn't woken up yet." _Lust_.

  
"I know you're worried but rest assured, he will be fine." _D2 Roman_.

  
"Hey you two," D2 Thomas said, standing in the doorway. "How's Pryce?"

  
"He's been out of it for a while now," Lust said, clearly worried.

  
D2 Roman rubbed Lust's back comfortingly, "I am confident our prince will be fine. He is a strong fighter after all."

  
D2 Thomas nodded, "Roman's right, Lust. Pryce is a tough guy."

  
Lust sighed, "I know, I know. I'm just worried."

  
D2 Roman gently pulled Lust into his arms, "Come here, you should get some sleep as well. You'll feel better if you do."

  
D2 Thomas left them alone and continued his journey. ' _One more room to check_.' As soon as he arrived, he knocked on the closed door gently.

  
"Come in." _Emile_.

  
Opening the door, D2 Thomas looked around. Emile was stuck sitting on the ground, Pride sitting behind him with his arms wrapped protectively around the therapist. "Uh..."

  
Emile merely smiled, "Don't mind Pride, you know how he is sometimes."

  
Pride merely grunted in response, burying his face in Emile's neck. This merely caused Emile to laugh and pat one of the side's arms gently. D2 Thomas merely shook his head at the sight, "So, everything is alright with you guys?"

  
"Yeah, they're fine. They've been like that since we got here," another voice answered. He looked over and saw D1 Remy on his phone, texting someone.

  
"Who're you texting?" D2 Thomas asked.

  
"The boss man. He and the others are hiding out in the north side of town," D1 Remy replied. "No sign of Damon though."

  
Pride growled at the mention of Damon's name and tightened his hold on Emile slightly. In response, Emile turned around slightly and started scratching behind the side's ears in an effort to calm him. D2 Thomas just shook his head while D1 Remy rolled his eyes.

  
' _This is going to be a long night._ '


	19. Gunther

Damon returned to the jail, intending on tormenting Gunther some more. He smirked as he thought about the electrified cell bars, hoping the other demon was desperate enough to try grabbing them. However, his expression dropped the minute he saw that Gunther was nowhere to be seen, everything remaining untouched. His right eye began to twitch and with a loud roar...

  
" _GUNTHER_!"

  
In the abandoned building the D1 team were hiding out in, D1 Thomas looked up from where he was lying down, "Did you hear something?"

  
"It was probably noth-" Anger was cut off by the door opening. Standing there was D1 Andy, holding up an unconscious D1 Pryce who was draped across his shoulders. "Shit, never mind." Walking over, Anger carefully lifted D1 Pryce up.

  
D1 Andy looked over at D1 Thomas as Anger carried the prince away to bandage him up. "So, what'd we miss?"

  
D1 Thomas looked like he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment, "Well...Insanity's here."

  
" _What_?!" D1 Andy demanded to know.

  
"It's a...kind of a long story? Aiden and Arlo can fill you in," D1 Thomas said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

  
True to what D1 Thomas said, the two sides told D1 Andy what happened in regards to Insanity later that night. The look on his face was unreadable. After a few tense minutes, he spoke, "...Fuck. This is the guy I've been having nightmares about, you realize this, right?"

  
"You're not the only one," Anger muttered.

  
Courage sighed, "I understand that - both of you. But right now he's so injured he couldn't even try anything if he wanted to."

  
"Well how do we know he's not lying or something?" D1 Andy argued.

  
"We don't. ... _Yet_ ," Anger begrudgingly added.

  
"Mendax is planning on talking with Insanity once he wakes up," Courage answered. "Then we'll know for sure if he's lying or not."

  
Later that night, Gunther did in fact wake up - screaming in utter terror which was quickly replaced by a scream of pain. Both his chest and back ached something fierce and all he could do was lay in the makeshift bed, staring at the dark ceiling. ' _Wh-where am I?..._ '

  
"...Here."

  
Gunther managed to look over at a hand that was holding some pills and, in the other hand, a water bottle. That would have been enough to shock him by itself but who he saw... "D-Deceit?!" The shock caused him to jolt up, only for him to yell in pain once more.

  
"Shit," Mendax muttered. Putting the pills and bottle aside, he helped Gunther lay back down as carefully as possible. Once he was sure that there wouldn't be any more sudden movement, he held the pills out to Gunther again.

  
Desperately, Gunther grabbed the pills as well as the water. Downing the medicine, he took a moment to catch his breath. "Where...am I?"

  
"...You're still in the town. Pops and Dad...they brought you to our temporary " _hideout_ "," Mendax said, glancing everywhere except at Gunther.

  
Gunther merely nodded, looking down at his lap. ' _You need to do this, Gunther..._ ' Taking a deep breath, he spoke, "I'm sorry."

  
Mendax looked at him, shock clear as day on his face, " _What_?"

  
Gunther took another breath and forced himself to look the side in the eyes, "I'm sorry - for tormenting your family, for all the fucked up shit I caused in the Imagination, for trying to possess Thomas, for all the torment I put you and Virgil through..." He clenched his eyes shut as he felt tears try to escape. "I fucked up so many things and I'm sorry. If I could fix everything, I would in a heartbeat."

  
Mendax was taken aback by this. He knew that the demon apologized to Anger and Courage, he didn't know that it was the truth though. Every last word Mendax just heard - all of it true. Wrapping his arms around himself, he looked up at the ceiling, thoughts flooding his mind.

  
He was angry, yes, but it was nowhere near as burning as it was back when the demon was a threat. If anything, his anger had shifted towards Damon. His thoughts nagged him - he had a decision to make. Either way, there was no going back once he made his choice.

  
"Insanity..." Mendax said, finally looking at the demon again.

  
"... _Gunther_..." the demon muttered.

  
Mendax raised an eyebrow, "What?"

  
"...My true name is Gunther," he began. "Insanity was...the name of an ancestor of mine. I _don't_ deserve that name...nor do I _want_ it any longer."

  
Reaffirming his decision in his mind, Mendax spoke, "...Gunther. I can't speak for the others but..." He let out a sigh before continuing, "I forgive you."


	20. Decisions

" _Well?_ "

  
Mendax tiredly looked over at Anger the minute he closed the door to Gunther's room. "He wasn't lying about any of it."

  
To everyone's surprise, Anger merely sat back and crossed his arms. They had at least expected some kind of outburst but there was none. "...Good."

  
"Pops...are you alright?" D1 Virgil asked nervously, absentmindedly messing around with the zippers on his hoodie sleeves.

  
"Between Arlo's efforts and Insanity's initial apology, that's what knocked sense back into me," Anger muttered. "That's... _something_ , I suppose."

  
"About that, his name I _don't_ mean, it's not Insanity," Mendax said. Everyone else in the room looked at him, confusion clear on their faces. "His real name is Gunther," Mendax continued.

  
"He told you his name - his real name, I mean?" D1 Roman asked.

  
Mendax nodded, "He _didn't_ say Insanity was just a name he took from some ancestor of his."

  
"...So what the hell do we do now?" D1 Andy asked no one in particular, a scowl on his face. "We got one demon who's too injured to fight and another demon that's after all of us."

  
"We need to try to meet up with the others in the morning," D1 Thomas said. "I got a text from Remy, they're hiding out in an office building - south side of town."

  
Later that night, Mendax was in one of the other rooms with his boyfriends. They all sat in a circle as they discussed Gunther.

  
"You _forgave_ him? After everything he's done?" D1 Virgil asked, an unreadable expression on his face.

  
D1 Patton placed a hand on D1 Virgil's shoulder, looking at him worriedly. "Virgil?"

  
"I don't get it. Putting everything he did to us as a whole aside, what about what he's done to _you_?" D1 Virgil asked, looking directly at Mendax.

  
"Holding a grudge won't change anything that's happened," Mendax argued. "whether to me or to anyone else. ...Besides, in a way...he _hasn't_ made things better for us..."

  
Their boyfriends glanced between Mendax and D1 Virgil, a tense silence overcoming the room. Mendax stared at D1 Virgil tiredly while the other side looked everywhere except at him. Finally, after several long minutes, D1 Virgil spoke, "Have you lost your mind!?"

  
"Virge-" Mendax was cut off.

  
"Dax, how the hell did he make things _better_?!" D1 Virgil demanded, starting to get up.

  
D1 Patton grabbed D1 Virgil around the waist and pulled him back down. He readjusted them so D1 Virgil was sitting on his lap, the emo's back to his chest. "Virgil, kiddo, _please_. Let him speak," D1 Patton pleaded.

  
"Indeed Virgil, it would be the smart thing to do. Mendax clearly has his reasons and I for one would like to hear them," D1 Logan said, patting Mendax on the shoulder as gentle reassurance. "Roman?"

  
D1 Roman sighed, "As much as I may dislike that scoundrel, it would be for the best to hear Mendax's reasoning before deciding."

  
D1 Virgil didn't look happy but ultimately relented, " _Fine_."

  
Mendax sighed, "Thank you. Look, what I'm not trying to say is - if it weren't for Gunther, we wouldn't even have the family we currently do." Before Virgil could interrupt again, Mendax held up his hand. "Think about it. If he never showed up, you, me, and Pops would still be living in the dark side of the mindscape and Dad would've had to keep up the whole traveling between the dark and light sides. We would have never met the figments or most likely Thomas for that matter. Hell, you and me wouldn't have met the three amazing people here in the room with us."

  
Everyone of them were silent as they took in what Mendax said. As much as D1 Virgil and D1 Roman in particular didn't want to admit it, Mendax did make several true points towards forgiving Gunther, which D1 Logan was quick to point out as well. D1 Patton had wanted to forgive Gunther the minute Aiden and Arlo brought him back and told them what happened. Holding grudges despite someone truly apologizing left him with a bad feeling all over and he had a hunch that D1 Thomas himself was feeling the same way.

  
"...While I can't speak for anyone other than myself, I am willing to give our former adversary a second chance," D1 Logan said.

  
"You all know how I feel about holding grudges," D1 Patton added, looking at D1 Virgil and D1 Roman hopefully.

  
D1 Roman let out an over-dramatic sigh, "While I still don't trust him, I will give him another chance. However, I _will_ be keeping my eye on him for the time being."

  
D1 Virgil took the longest to answer. Glancing around the room, he bit his lip before speaking. "I'm with Roman on this - I'm keeping an eye on him for now."

  
Mendax nodded his head, "I _would_ expect less from you both."


	21. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What have D1 Andy and D1 Pryce been up to during this time?

"You're...oddly calm about all of this," D1 Pryce said, having been filled in on the current situation regarding Gunther. He had finally woken up about ten minutes prior, any ill effects of Damon's spell gone.

  
D1 Andy merely shrugged his shoulders, "As long as the nightmares involving him stop, then I'm good. Besides, even if he does try anything, he's _not_ nearly as powerful as he was beforehand."

  
" _Nightmares_? You've been having nightmares about him?" D1 Pryce asked, casting a concerned look over at him.

  
The figment leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, "You know how it is by now. Crazy shit happens, I get paranoid for a while, and that causes me to have some fucked up nightmares. Been like that since my guard days."

  
"Does anyone else know about the nightmares you've been having recently?" The prince asked.

  
"Remy and Mendax were the only ones who knew initially. Thomas found out by accident and Mendax ended up telling Aiden and Arlo after that," D1 Andy muttered. "Turns out Aiden was having nightmares too, just not nearly as often."

  
At the mention of Remy's name, D1 Pryce frowned as he remembered D1 Andy questioning him during their fight. He looked down at the floor, unsure of how to proceed. ' _Come on Pryce! You're a prince! What are you so afraid of?!_ '

  
"Hey, you alright?" D1 Andy asked, getting up and walking over. "What's bugging you?"

  
"I..." D1 Pryce hesitated before speaking quickly, "what's the deal with you and Remy!?"

  
D1 Andy blinked and tilted his head, crossing his arms. "What do you mean? If anything you should be answering that for me."

  
' _Fuck, fuck, fuck!_ ' D1 Pryce stood up and walked around the room nervously. "He's _always_ the one you go to when you need help! You two are _always_ hanging out by yourselves as much as possible! Any time there's a mission, it's you and _him_!"

  
"Well, yeah, he's my best friend," D1 Andy answered. "Of course I'm...wait. Are...you _jealous_ of Remy?"

  
"O-of course not!" D1 Pryce stuttered, trying to ignore how his face was starting to get warm. "I just..."

  
"You're just jealous, like I said," D1 Andy replied. "Seriously, Remy and I are best friends, that's all. No need to get so huffy, _Prince Charming_."

  
D1 Pryce cursed himself as he was sure his face was bright red at this point, that nickname certainly not helping in the slightest. "I can't tell if you get what I'm trying to say or not!"

  
"That depends, why don't you be more specific with what you mean?" D1 Andy smirked at seeing how riled up D1 Pryce was getting, ' _Just like the good old days_.'

  
Between the smirk and the other figment's tone of voice, that's what did the prince in. He marched up to his leader and grabbed his shoulders. Pulling the other figment towards himself, D1 Pryce kissed him long and hard before pushing back. "You are so insufferable sometimes."

  
"And you're dense as hell sometimes," D1 Andy replied, a blush crossing his own face now. "I've been dropping hints for a while and you never caught on. I just figured you weren't interested."

  
D1 Pryce rested his forehead against the other figment's, staring him in the eyes. "Mistakes were made by both of us then."

  
D1 Andy rolled his eyes, "Clearly. Now shut up and kiss me, royal boy."

  
"With pleasure, _leader_ ," D1 Pryce growled out the last word.

  
D1 Andy felt a shiver run through him at that and quickly made sure the door to the room was locked. "No interruptions," he said with a smirk.

  
The prince matched the smirk with his own.

  
" _Good_."


	22. Danger

A blast rang out as a bolt of dark energy hit one of the walls of the jail, leaving a crumbling hole in its wake. Damon paced around, furious that Gunther still had enough power left to escape. He had been so fucking careful when it came to taking down his former mentor, making absolutely sure that the other demon was too weak to try anything.

  
_'You should never underestimate your opponents.'_

  
Damon growled as Gunther's words rang in his mind. That was the one constant in his lessons for a long time. The other demon tried to drill it into his head but Damon was always too arrogant to pay heed to it.  
"Fucking bastard!" Damon yelled, blasting another hole right next to the first. "Always had to get one up on me, didn't you?! Couldn't even listen to your own fucking advice when it mattered!" Growling, he stormed out of the building and took to the skies, beating his wings quickly. ' _I'll find you even if it's the last thing I do!_ '

  
As soon as the sun began to rise, D1 Thomas and the team quickly sneaked outside. They had no idea where Damon was and they didn't want to risk catching his attention. While D1 Thomas led the way with D1 Logan's occasional input, the rest were keeping an eye out for any sign of Damon. Trailing behind the rest of the group, Courage and Anger were helping Gunther along due to his injuries. Making their way to the south side of town as quickly as they could manage, a loud blast caught their attention.

  
"Was that...?" D1 Patton trailed off, already knowing the likely answer.

  
" _Damon_ ," Gunther confirmed, grunting as he stepped down on his left foot awkwardly. Courage silently shared a worried glance with Anger, careful to make sure no one else noticed, before focusing back on the matter at hand.

  
"We need something that will distract him long enough for us to get past," D1 Logan stated, looking none too pleased at the current situation.

  
A sudden roar came from Damon as they got a glimpse of an arrow sticking out of his right arm. "...Or we change our plans a bit," D1 Roman suggested, drawing his sword. "Our friends need our help!"  
Sure enough, D1 Teal, D1 Dayd, and D1 Remy were fighting Damon. They had accidentally crossed paths with the demon while out scavenging for supplies. D1 Teal released another arrow from his crossbow at Damon before quickly hiding behind the corner of a building with D1 Dayd. As for D1 Remy, he dodged Damon's attacks while taunting him, trying to lure the demon down to the ground.

  
Damon caught the second arrow before it could hit him and snapped it in half. With a grunt, he harshly pulled the other arrow out of his arm, blood gushing from the wound. "Um... _ew_?" D1 Remy remarked.

  
Ripping a strip from his shirt, Damon tied it tightly around his arm. Glancing down at the figment, Damon growled and zoomed downwards, having had enough of D1 Remy's taunts. The minute he did, D1 Remy turned tail and ran as fast as he could to where D1 Teal and D1 Dayd were. ' _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!_ '

  
However, another roar alerted the three that something else was up. Glancing around the corner, they saw D1 Roman slice through part of Damon's left wing with his sword. Damon jumped back, an enraged look on his face. D1 Roman remained undeterred in the face of danger, determined to protect his friends and family. While he was busy fighting Damon, the others sneaked over to the trio of figments.

  
"Guys-?" D1 Dayd was cut off by D1 Remy.

  
"What the hell is _he_ doing here?!" D1 Remy yelled, pointing at a scowling Gunther.

  
D1 Andy slapped his hand over D1 Remy's mouth, "Keep your voice down, would ya?" He was met with an indignant look in response. That look turned into one of slight panic as Damon let out another roar. While D1 Roman was doing a number on Damon's wings, it was nowhere near enough to defeat him.

  
"We'll explain later. The important thing is that he's on our side in this mess," Courage answered, glancing over at the fight. "Where are the others?"

  
"They're still at the office building," D1 Dayd said.

  
"This was _supposed_ to be a scavenging trip," D1 Teal muttered, putting another arrow into the crossbow. He aimed the weapon and waited for the right moment. As soon as D1 Roman caught Damon off guard, D1 Teal let the arrow fly, watching as it hit one of the slash wounds in his wings.

  
Once Damon was sufficiently distracted with his injuries, D1 Roman ran over to the rest of the D1 team. The team followed the three figments, getting as far away from the area as possible. Once they finally made it to the building in question, they felt relief wash over them, as temporary it may be.

  
Unbeknownst to them, however, Damon just barely caught sight of Gunther's retreating form. Growling in frustration, he decided that he would deal with his injuries first. ' _And then I'm coming for you, Gunther!_ '


	23. Second Chances

Damon grunted as he carefully patched up his wings. "Damn sword, damn arrows..." He muttered to himself, glancing up at the two holes he made earlier in the jail. Rolling his eyes, he then looked at the jail cell that housed Gunther, sparks of electricity jumping from the bars. With a quick flick of his hand, the electric spell disappeared. ' _I have a better idea for him now._ '

  
In the office building, Aiden and Mendax explained what was going on in regards to Gunther working with them. D1 Teal and D1 Dayd were hesitant about this new development but both agreed that for the time being, they had more important things to deal with. D1 Remy was less than thrilled but begrudgingly agreed with the other two figments.

  
As for the D2 team, they were surprisingly a lot more sympathetic towards Gunther than expected. This came down to experience - specifically, in regards to Greed and Pride. With the two sides' permission, their stories were told to the D1 team. Greed and Pride used to be blinded by their traits and would constantly cause severe trouble for anyone and everyone. However, once they " _got hit upside the head with sense_ " as Lust so eloquently put it, in a similar manner that Gunther was, the two apologized and were forgiven.

* * *

  
"So what exactly happened during your scavenging mission?" D2 Teal asked his doppelganger.

  
"Damon found us-" D1 Teal was interrupted.

  
"They used me as a distraction," D1 Remy grumbled, looking at his phone.

  
"You're the fastest of the three of us," D1 Dayd pointed out.

  
" _Anyway_ ," D1 Teal stressed the word, "as I said, Damon found us. Thankfully, the others showed up."

  
"Yeah, I didn't have to be live bait anymore," D1 Remy snarked. "D1 Roman took up that job instead. Between his sword and teach's crossbow, his wings took a beating."

  
D2 Teal smirked and patted his doppelganger on the back, "Nice job."

* * *

  
Gunther grunted as Courage checked his foot. He noticed a scowl on the side's face. "What is it?"

  
"You have a bad cut on your foot," Courage said. "Aiden, can you bring me the first aid kit?"

  
Anger grabbed the first aid kit and handed it to Courage, "Here." He glanced at the injury in question and winced slightly.

  
"That bad?" Gunther asked, hissing as Courage got to work.

  
"You could say that," Anger muttered, shaking his head.

  
"It'll get better once it's bandaged properly," Courage answered. "You'll need to stay off of it for a while though."

  
Gunther winced as pain shot through him, "Not possible with Damon after me."

  
After a few more minutes, Gunther's foot was taken care of. Courage handed the first aid kit back to Anger and looked at the demon. "Is there a particular reason Damon's after you?"

  
Gunther sat back in the chair he was sitting on, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else at the moment. A few minutes of silence passed, the two sides giving him space. Finally, the demon sighed, "Damon used to be a student of mine."

  
Anger and Courage both glanced at each other, surprise clear on their faces. Raising an eyebrow, Anger looked back at Gunther. "You used to be a teacher?"

  
The demon waved his hand dismissively, "Not technically. When Damon was a kid, he started bugging me one day to teach him magic and how to fight. The problem was that he was far too arrogant, even for me."

  
"So what happened?" Anger asked, crossing his arms.

  
"Over the years, he and I butted heads over nearly everything. I..." Gunther grimaced at the memories as he continued, "...I was so caught up in following my ancestor's damned legacy that I fell for Damon's taunts. He challenged me, declaring that I was unworthy of it and...blinded by my own childhood teachings and ambitions, I decided to follow in my ancestor's footsteps and possess a human, eventually using them for my own bidding."

  
"...And that human was Thomas," Courage finished for him.

  
"...Yes," Gunther confirmed quietly as he stared at the floor, feeling guilt overcoming him once more. "I'm sorry."

  
Anger glanced over at Courage, expression unreadable. Calmly, he walked over to Gunther and put his hand on the demon's shoulder. Gunther winced at the touch and waited for the inevitable attack from the side. However, to his surprise, nothing happened. "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have by now," Anger said. "You apologized and if it weren't for that, I could have seriously hurt Arlo while under Damon's spell."

  
"Anger-" Gunther was cut off.

  
"My real name is Aiden." Anger sighed and looked at the demon, "We were enemies once but...I'm willing to give you a second chance."

  
Courage nodded his head in agreement, "As am I... My real name is Arlo."


	24. Captured

"Argh!" Gunther yelled in pain as Damon twisted his arm behind his back.

  
The winged demon had tracked them down and threatened to kill every last one of them unless Gunther faced him alone in a battle. "I can't believe you actually fell for that," Damon growled into his ear. "Even after I kill you, I intend on targeting them next. What's the saying? _Adding insult to injury_?"

  
Gunther clenched his eyes shut and concentrated. Using his free arm, he elbowed Damon in the chest, freeing himself. Thinking quickly, he then sucker punched Damon in the face as hard as he could manage with his current injuries.

  
Damon growled as he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. Before Gunther could react, Damon kneed him in the stomach, leaving him gasping for air. "You used to seem so strong when I was a kid. What a lie that was." As if to put emphasis on his point, Damon punched Gunther in the chest, watching as the other demon yelled and stumbled backwards. "No wonder you had to rely on an army of fucking _rats_ to do your dirty work for you."

  
Regaining his balance, Gunther gritted his teeth and lunged at Damon, tackling him to the ground. Raising his hand, he brought it down as fast as possible, claws aimed at the other demon's face. However, his injured state was affecting his abilities and Damon proved himself to be faster, grabbing Gunther's wrist and twisting it. The minute Damon felt Gunther's resistance weaken, he kicked his former teacher off of him.

  
Jumping to his feet, Damon marched over to Gunther. Smirking, Damon placed his foot on Gunther's back and slammed it down. With each word he spoke, he punctuated it with another stomp to Gunther's back. "Time!" _Stomp._ "To!" _Stomp._ 'Finish!" _Stomp._ "What!" _Stomp._ "I!" _Stomp._ "Start-oof!" Damon was caught off guard when D1 Virgil suddenly tackled him.

  
"Get the fuck away from him!" D1 Virgil growled, punching Damon hard in the face.

  
" _Get him!_ "

  
Damon growled as he heard the rallying yell from Anger. He suddenly grabbed D1 Virgil's head and pulled his own back before hitting his forehead against the side's, hard enough to make D1 Virgil recoil in pain. Seeing his chance, he punched D1 Virgil in the chest, and got up.

  
An angry look of determination crossed Damon's face as he waited for the two teams to get close enough. Once they were within range, he uttered the same electricity spell from earlier in the town jail. However, this time was different. He used the spell to aim several bolts of lightning at the teams, forcing them to scatter temporarily.

  
Gunther groaned as he struggled to get to his feet. His attention was caught by a muttered curse from D1 Virgil. To his surprise, the anxious side rushed at Damon while he was busy chanting the spell. ' _What is he-?!_ '

* * *

  
_"You're going to need all the help you can get once I'm done with both of you."_

  
_Both sides looked up and saw Insanity; dark energy forming in his hand. With a smirk, Insanity formed the energy into a ball and quickly threw it at them. Upon seeing the attack, Virgil's instincts kicked in and shoved Deceit out of the way, taking the full brunt of the attack. Deceit stood there stunned as Virgil let out a blood-chilling yell and collapsed._

* * *

  
"No," Gunther whispered to himself, panic starting to set in. "No, no, no!" He made a mad dash towards the two and saw Damon's attention suddenly shift towards D1 Virgil.

  
" _Not again!_ "

  
Before D1 Virgil could react, he felt himself being shoved out of the way of Damon's attack. To Damon's delight and to everyone else's shock, Gunther took the attack, letting out a harsh yell as electricity coursed through his body. Once the spell subsided, Gunther fell forward as he felt the last of his body's strength leave him. As he drifted in and out of consciousness, he swore he heard his name being shouted and someone roughly lifting him by his arm.

  
"I'm nowhere near done with you yet," Damon growled into his ear. As soon as the others rushed towards him, Damon leaped into the air, sending them all backwards with a strong flap of his wings. Calling back to his own remark about adding insult to injury he cast his electricity spell against them, causing them to scatter once again, before disappearing into the air.

  
While everyone else regrouped in a panicked hurry, Aiden and Arlo stood back. In a rage, Aiden punched the nearest building wall, leaving cracks in it. Arlo approached him carefully, concern clear as day on his face, " _Aiden_."

  
"We need to go after them!" Anger shouted, shaking as he breathed heavily.

  
Arlo was silent as he glanced between the two teams and Aiden. The teams were already working out a plan to rescue Gunther and take down Damon but they both knew that some kind of distraction would be necessary. So, why not get two of the three things out of the way beforehand? He knew it was risky, ' _but saving Gunther is worth the risk_ '.

  
Arlo put his hand on Aiden's shoulder and turned the other side to face him. A more subtle rage could be felt coming from Arlo as he spoke, " _Let's go_."


	25. Into the Mines

Gunther groaned as he came to, pain flooding his body. Forcing himself to sit up, he had to resist the urge to gag as the stench of death assaulted his nose. He looked around and noticed that where ever Damon took him to seemed familiar. ' _The mines...? Of course._ '

  
"Well, look who's finally awake! I was worried you died on me back there!" Damon entered the small room that Gunther was being held in. In his hand was a bloody bone with bits of meat dangling from it. He watched with amusement as Gunther made a face of disgust. "Aw, what's the matter? Can't handle the smell of human meat?"

  
"You're fucking disgusting..." Gunther muttered, glaring at Damon. "Same with that damn smell."

  
Damon merely smirked, taunting him, "I'll keep that in mind, _mentor_."

  
Gunther growled weakly at the other demon, "I'm _not_ your fucking mentor anymore."

  
 "Nor are you powerful anymore. I've _clearly_ surpassed you a long time ago," Damon replied, throwing the bone at him with a snicker. " _Enjoy_."

* * *

 

Aiden and Arlo were making their way to the mines. It was more so a hunch that led them there rather than any solid proof. However, they got all the proof they needed when they stumbled upon one of the entrances, fresh human bones scattered about and blood splatters staining the ground.

  
"Holy..." Aiden trailed off, shocked by the sight before them. He just barely felt Arlo's hand on his shoulder, gripping it slightly.

  
Arlo was looking pale but shook his head. There was no turning back, not when they had to rescue someone. "...Come on, we're doing this."

  
" _Not by yourselves, you're not_."

  
The two turned back, looks of confusion on their faces. Standing there was D2 Andy, D2 Remy, D2 Virgil, Deceit, and Greed. "What...?" Aiden trailed off.

  
"You two need to rescue Gunther but someone needs to distract Damon. That's where we come in," D2 Remy said, a confident smirk on his face.

  
"Are you sure about this?" Arlo asked, sharing a concerned look with Aiden.

  
"Damon _doesn't_ have it coming," Deceit remarked, a scowl on his face.

  
"We got this," D2 Andy reaffirmed what D2 Remy said. "Our family calls us the " _Troublemakers_ " for a reason."

  
Aiden glanced at D2 Virgil and Greed, "What about the two of you?"

  
"Wherever these dorks go, I go," D2 Virgil answered, shrugging his shoulders, smirking as D2 Remy shot a mock-offended look at him.

  
Greed merely grinned, "Do you have any idea how strong a gator's bite is? Just let me at the bastard."

* * *

  
Quietly, the group sneaked into the mines. So far, all they had found was nothing but more bones and old mining equipment scattered about. While the others continued onward, D2 Remy picked up an old pick axe and hurried after them. He showed it to Deceit and whispered something to him along the lines of " _hitting Damon with it_ ". In response, Deceit just shook his head at the figment's antics.

  
After an uncertain amount of time, they came to a clearing with two paths. One of the paths was lit with torches and seemed more recently taken care of while the other lacked any kind of light, leading into foreboding darkness. Blood splatters dotted the immediate area around there.

  
"Shit," Aiden muttered, crossing his arms. "We're gonna have to split up."

  
"...Hey, what if one of us goes down the wrong path?" Greed asked.

  
"What?" Aiden looked over at the green-clad side.

  
"What if you two run into Damon instead  of us is _not_ what he means," Deceit answered.

  
"...We're just going to have to hope luck is on our side," Arlo said, frowning as he eyed the unlit path.

  
"All of you - _be careful_. Got it?" Aiden spoke, addressing the Troublemakers as if he were warning his own kids. He was met with reassurances that they would do their best. It wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for but it couldn't be helped given the circumstances.

  
"Come on," Arlo said, taking one of the torches off the wall. Grabbing Aiden's hand, the two began walking down the opposite path.

* * *

  
Gunther glanced at the bone that Damon left behind. ' _Maybe..._ ' Quickly, he shook his head. He was hungry and tired, yes, but he refused to stoop to Damon's level. "I haven't once eaten human flesh before and I refuse to start now!" While yelling that, Gunther grabbed the bone and threw it as hard as possible away from him.

  
With that, he noticed shackles around his wrists and ankles, keeping him from moving around too much. "Fucking hell, Damon!" He slammed one of his fists on the ground next to him. Letting out a frustrated growl, Gunther sunk down against the wall he was chained to. Under normal circumstances, he could have easily broken free from the shackles. "What the hell even is normal anymore?" Gunther muttered to himself.

  
As if to stump him even further, his thoughts drifted to Arlo and Aiden. He didn't know why, but the thought of them was calming him down. Shaking his head, Gunther chalked it up to being both physically and mentally exhausted. "Still, I suppose thinking of them is a better thing to fall asleep to than thinking of Damon..." Gunther muttered to himself as he felt the exhaustion grow stronger and his will to stay awake for the time being weaken. Silently, he closed his eyes as he fell into a restless sleep.


	26. True Form

Carefully, Arlo and Aiden made their way down the dark path. So far, all they had come across was more bones and cobwebs. However, just as soon as they were starting to think there was nothing down there, they came across an old, rusty door.

  
Sharing a look, Arlo handed Aiden the torch and approached the door. To their surprise, it was unlocked and Arlo pushed the door open. On the other side was a small room and someone slumped against a wall.

  
"What the...?" Aiden trailed off, lifting the torch to better illuminate the area.

  
"It's Gunther," Arlo confirmed, walking over and kneeling down next to the demon. A scowl crossed his face as he took in the sight of the new injuries. Upon seeing the shackles, his scowl deepened and he motioned for Aiden to come over.

  
Aiden handed the torch to Arlo and held up one of the chains in his hand. "These are old as hell. Should come apart easily..." Silently, he moved his hands to the shackles themselves. Focusing, he placed his fingers on the inside of the shackle cuffs and one by one, he forced them open, freeing Gunther.

* * *

  
"Argh! Get the hell off of me!" Damon yelled, one of his wings currently out of commission due to the fact that a certain alligator decided chomp down on it.

  
"Damn! Go Greed!" D2 Remy laughed as Damon flailed his wings around.

  
As soon as Damon attempted to hit Greed with the electricity spell, the side let go, causing the spell to hit Damon's wing instead. "Fuck!"

  
Meanwhile, Greed returned to human form, muttering about the wing being " _too many feathers, not enough meat_ ". D2 Andy merely shook his head at the side's antics, deciding that it was his turn to take out Damon's other wing. Shifting into a lion, he charged at Damon while the demon was still recovering from the electric shock. With a swift pounce, D2 Andy knocked Damon to the ground face first.

  
"Payback's a bitch," he growled out before biting down on Damon's other wing and pulling it hard. The minute he heard bone crack and saw a clawed hand aimed at his face did he let go and retreat. However, not one to be deterred, he bared his teeth and growled out a warning, blood dripping down his muzzle.

  
Damon got up, his wings missing feathers and dripping blood, a crazed look in his eyes. "So what if I can't fucking fly now? I still got other tricks up my sleeve." With a flick of his wrist, orbs of electricity appeared in his hand.

  
"...Aw fuck," D2 Remy muttered.

  
Damon had a twisted smirk on his face as he continuously summoned and threw the electric orbs at the group, watching as they were forced to dodge out of the way. "Just try and get near me now," he taunted.  
To his surprise, the group was actually doing a rather decent job dodging the orbs. With a scowl, he increased the speed in which he attacked them. D2 Virgil and Deceit were the fastest of them and in a split second decision, they made it their goal to get Damon to mainly focus on them. While they distracted Damon, the other three were able to get some hits in before having to retreat once more.

  
It was then that an idea came to D2 Remy. While he was initially joking at the time, now it seemed like as good a plan as any. Grabbing the old pick axe, D2 Remy jumped at Damon's back and swung the tool downwards, piercing the area of Damon's back where his wings met his body. With a pained roar, Damon spun around quickly, kicking D2 Remy away from himself. However, the figment made sure to keep at least one hand on the pick axe's handle so when Damon kicked him, the tool was ripped out of his back at the same time.

  
" _I'm not sure whether to be impressed or disgusted by that_."

  
All of them looked up in the direction of the voice. Standing there was Mendax, his arms crossed and a glare on his face aimed at Damon. Farther up the tunnel, what sounded like the two teams could be heard. "It's _not_ over Damon."

  
"For the lot of you? Yes, yes it is," Damon said, stumbling to his feet.

  
As soon as the rest of the teams arrived, he started laughing and made the electric orbs disappear. "Won't need them right now." Dark energy suddenly sparked and overtook him, changing his body. Gone were the bloody and broken feathered wings and the humanoid appearance he took on. In its place was a horned, dragon-esque demon. Sparks of electricity blew from his mouth as he took a deep breath. "I'm going to enjoy this!"


	27. Return to Form

_Gunther looked around, sun shining down into the destroyed mines. Blood was everywhere and once more, the stench of death assaulted him, making him gag. Despite this, there were no bodies to be seen, except for one..._

  
_"Damon...?"_

  
_Damon's head snapped up unnaturally and then snapped to look at Gunther, a twisted grin on his face. His maw and teeth were covered in blood and his eyes were pitch black, giving off the appearance of empty eye sockets. "You're just in time, mentor..."_

  
_Gunther took a step back, trying to mask the fear on his face with a scowl, "I'm not your mentor anymore."_

  
_Damon merely laughed in response, "You're scared of me. Imagine what Insanity would think...or your great-grandfather."_

  
_With a growl Gunther swiped at Damon with his claws, taking on a shadowy appearance as he did so, "They can rot for all I care! And you can join them."_

  
_The other demon continued to laugh, even as blood dripped down his face, "I think you got that mixed up. You're the one joining them!" Damon then lunged at Gunther and pinned him to the ground. "I'm going to enjoy this!" Drawing his claw back, Damon aimed it at Gunther's chest. Right as it made contact, Gunther screamed._

* * *

  
Gunther jolted awake with a scream, startling Aiden and Arlo. In a panic, he tried to escape from Aiden's arms. "Whoa, hey, hey! Relax, it's just us," Aiden said, setting Gunther down on the ground and kneeling down in front of him. "Gunther, try to focus on me."

  
However, Gunther shook his head rapidly and tried to get up and run past him, gasping in pain as he did so. "No, there's no time!"

  
Aiden grabbed Gunther by his shoulders, holding him still, while Arlo attempted to talk to him. "Gunther, whatever spooked you, it was just a nightmare," Arlo tried to reassure him.

  
Once more he shook his head, "The others- the others are in trouble! Damon's not messing around anymore!"

  
The two sides glanced at each other, unsure of how to proceed. Gunther was too injured to fight and they refused to leave him there. However, if what Gunther was saying was true...

  
"...We don't have a choice," Aiden finally spoke. "The others need all the help they can get."

  
"Gunther is too injured to fight though," Arlo pointed out, a worried expression on his face. "What the hell do we do?"

  
"I-I can still fight," Gunther gasped out, breaking out of Aiden's hold and leaning against the wall. When the two tried to approach him, he held his hand up. "I just need...to do _this_." Tapping into what energy he could, an all too familiar cloud of smoke enveloped him. Once the smoke dissipated, Gunther was standing there in full demonic form.

* * *

  
The two teams scattered and hid as Damon slammed one of his claws down into the ground, leaving a dragon-foot shaped hole behind. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," Damon taunted as he glanced around for any sight of the humans.

  
Hiding behind a large boulder, D1 Thomas carefully peaked around before ducking back again. "Roman, can't you do something?"

  
"Not to downplay my own skills, I absolutely assure you, but that... _thing_ is bigger than the Dragon Witch!" D1 Roman said, trying to hide his own panic for the sake of his family.

  
"It would also be highly illogical for anyone to attempt to fight Damon in here. With his size, there is a high risk that he could easily cause a cave-in to happen," D1 Logan added, studying the scene before him as best as he could.

  
"Meaning we need to get out of here!" D1 Virgil added as he paced around nervously, his fight or flight instincts kicking in. Mendax and D1 Patton looked at him with concern. After what happened earlier with Gunther saving him, D1 Virgil was more than a bit jumpy.

  
Before any more could be said, a screech came from Damon as a torch was thrown at his face. Shaking the flames out, Damon growled and looked in the direction it came from. Standing there was Arlo, Aiden, and... " _Gunther!_ "

  
"Go get the others out of here," Gunther muttered, glaring at Damon. "I'll keep him busy for as long as possible."

  
They both nodded, albeit hesitantly. "And once the two of you get out of here, it's a free for all on the surface," Aiden confirmed.

  
"Exactly," Gunther growled as he stared Damon down. " _Be ready_."

  
"... _Be careful_ ," Arlo answered. As soon as those words were said, Gunther rushed at Damon, claws and teeth barred.


	28. Desperate Fight - Part 1

"Aw, what's this? A power boost?" Damon taunted, watching Gunther rush towards him. "You're still nothing compared to me!" With that, Damon swiped at Gunther with his claws. However, Gunther was faster in this form than Damon thought, teleporting out of the way just before his claws made contact.

  
Gunther then reappeared in front of Damon's face and kicked him in the jaw as hard as he could before disappearing again. He kept up this tactic until Damon started to catch on, knocking Gunther into the ground with his tail. With a grunt, Gunther got up and dodged out of the way when Damon used his electric breath to attack.

  
"You can't dodge forever!" Damon growled, swiping his tail at Gunther again.

  
"And you can't win every damn fight," Gunther muttered, teleporting out of the way. Once he was certain that the others escaped the mines, he reappeared on a boulder near the ceiling. Gunther then began to taunt Damon, "Come on! Why don't you show off your stupid electric breath again, _apprentice_!"

  
"Oh, you son of a-!" With that, Damon shot electricity at Gunther. Right at the last second, Gunther jumped down from the boulder and watched as part of the ceiling was destroyed. Immediately, Damon's attention was caught by further cracks and noises coming from the area. " _You_ -!"

  
Gunther merely smirked as the mines started to cave in, "See ya." With that, he teleported to the outside, ending up near the others.

  
"Where's the bastard?" Aiden asked the minute they noticed Gunther. As if answering the question himself, a loud roar was heard from the mines and Damon shot up into the air, rubble falling off of him. Landing on the ground, he let out another roar, electricity shooting into the sky. "...Never mind then," Aiden muttered.

  
Soon enough, everyone was throwing their all into the battle against Damon. However, Damon was proving that he was more than a match for them. Damon growled as he felt something pierce one of his wings. Glancing around quickly, Damon spotted D1 Teal aiming his crossbow at him. "Oh no you don't! _Not again_!" Damon slammed one of his front feet down near the figment, causing shock waves to ripple through the ground and throw him off balance.

  
In the brief moment Damon wasn't paying attention, D1 Roman rushed at the demon dragon, stabbing his tail with his sword. Quickly, he pulled out the sword and dodge rolled out of the way as Damon swung his tail around in a fit of rage. Seeing another opportunity, the prince slashed one of Damon's back legs repeatedly, staining his sword with blood.

  
In response, Damon kicked his leg and managed to hit D1 Roman, one of his toe claws inadvertently slashing the prince's right arm. However, when he heard the prince scream out in pain, Damon smirked and swiped his tail around, intending on hitting D1 Roman. Instead, Gunther appeared in a cloud of smoke and grabbed D1 Roman, teleporting him to the sidelines so D1 Thomas and D1 Patton could patch his arm up with the first aid kit.

  
Another roar erupted from Damon as he felt sharp teeth sink into one of his wings. Greed, in gator form, had repeated his attack method from earlier. While Damon moved his wing, trying to shake Greed off, he felt another sharp pain coming from his back. Pride followed Greed's idea, with some minor differences. Instead of trying to bite the dragon, the fox was rapidly clawing at Damon's scales, ripping them off of his body.

  
Growing more and more frustrated by the second, Damon flapped his wings as hard as he could, forcing Greed to let go for his own safety. Once his wing was free, Damon looked back and shot electricity at the fox. In a panic, Pride stopped what he was doing and jumped to the ground, landing hard enough that he was forced back into human form. Just as quickly, Greed followed him, both of them down for the count.  
Turning his attention to the two, he got ready to shoot electricity at them. However, he was distracted by more arrows piercing his wings. Looking in the direction they came from, he saw D1 Teal glaring at him.

  
"You again?!" Damon growled and as soon as he got close enough, a loud war cry was heard while D1 Teal just smirked. An otter holding an arrow, D2 Teal, leaped up from behind his doppelganger's shoulders and jumped on Damon's face, shoving the arrow into one of Damon's eyes as hard as possible. Once D2 Teal jumped down to his doppelganger's shoulders, the two made a run for it as Damon shook his head rapidly in pain.

  
While Damon was busy, Deceit and D2 Virgil dashed towards Pride and Greed. Picking up their fellow dark sides, the two got them to safety. "Shit, that bastard's tough," D2 Virgil muttered, watching as Damon pulled the arrow out of his eye. Blood rushed down the dragon's face, merely adding to his intimidating appearance.


	29. Desperate Fight - Part 2

"What's the count?" D2 Thomas worriedly muttered to his doppelganger, never taking his eyes off of Damon.

  
"Pride and Greed are down-" D1 Thomas was interrupted by D1 Roman.

  
"As for myself, I can still fight!" D1 Roman declared, reaching for his sword. However, D1 Patton stopped him just as quickly, concern on his face.

  
"Kiddo no. One of your arms is injured," D1 Patton objected, holding D1 Roman's shoulders.

  
"I can still fight! I have one good arm!" D1 Roman responded defiantly.

  
"Damn it Roman, Patton is right!" D1 Virgil added, "You've never even fought with a sword one-handed before!"

  
"And it's not a good idea to start right now," D1 Logan said, staring disapprovingly at D1 Roman's antics.

  
Damon, to his credit, was still far from defeated despite his eyesight now being hindered. "I grow tired of these pathetic attempts." Slamming one of his feet down, he sent shock waves through the ground to trip everyone around him. While they were distracted, Damon then summoned the electric orbs from earlier, targeting his opponents at random. Among his immediate targets were D2 Dayd and D2 Patton, D2 Logan, and Mendax, the last of whom took an attack that was initially aimed at Emile.

  
D1 Teal managed to shoot one more arrow into one of Damon's wings before he and his doppelganger were shocked by one of the orbs, both of them down for the count. The others weren't fairing much better; when D2 Roman and D2 Pryce were shocked by the orbs, Lust grabbed both of their swords in a rage and managed to stab both of the weapons into Damon's leg before  getting knocked out as well.   
Damon let out a roar of pain and turned his attention to the unconscious side responsible for the attack.  Before Damon could do anything, however, he felt a sharp pain in his tail. Snapping his head around, Damon caught sight of D1 Pryce. The figment had borrowed D1 Roman's sword, in addition to his own sword, and pulled off a similar stunt to the one Lust just pulled. Upon the dragon swinging his tail, D1 Pryce dodged out of the way and regrouped with D1 Andy.

  
"Where are the others?" D1 Pryce asked, referring to the rest of their group. As if some twisted force answered, D1 Dayd and D1 Remy landed near them, having been caught up in another one of Damon's tail attacks. "...Well then..."

  
"Fuck," D1 Andy muttered as they ran over to the other two. Kneeling down, he placed his fingers on Remy's neck. "He's still alive but he's out."

  
D1 Pryce nodded his head, "Same with Dayd."

  
A screech then drew forth from Damon. From where they were, they could just barely make out another animal on the dragon's back. However, what seemed to be one animal was actually several small ones hiding in a certain lion's mane. A spotted skunk, D2 Remy, was the first to pop out and onto Damon's back. Following him was a cat-raccoon hybrid; D2 Virgil, and a black and yellow snake; Deceit.

  
"Go find the area that Pride was attacking and have at it," D2 Andy ordered. "The skin right underneath those scales should be exposed." While the others carefully took off, D2 Andy crept along to Damon's unbitten wing and bit down as hard as he could. To add further injury, the lion used both sets of claws to leave as many cuts behind as he could.

  
While Damon was distracted by the animals on his back, Aiden and Arlo took the chance to attack him. Arlo landed a hard kick to the side of Damon's face and when the force of the attack sent the dragon's head swinging to the opposite side, Aiden landed a flurry of hard punches to the other side. He then let out a smirk as one of his punches managed to hit Damon in his injured eye.

  
This seemed to be the breaking point for Damon. Throwing his head back, the dragon let out the loudest roar yet and shot electricity out of his mouth into the sky. It was then that the clouds started to rapidly darken and the next thing anyone felt was pain before everything went black.

* * *

  
D1 Andy blinked as he awoke and sat up quickly, looking around frantically. The first thing he noticed was that everyone around him was lying unconscious on the ground. As for the next, he saw that there was a familiar dark red tint in the air that often plauged his nightmares. "Wait a minute. Am I...dreaming? The fuck?!"

  
"You are, in fact, dreaming."

  
D1 Andy looked around for the voice and saw Gunther standing before him. "Gunther, the hell's going on?! Some kind of lucid dreaming?!"

  
"I suppose that's what this would technically be," Gunther answered. "After all, you are actively aware that this is a dream."

  
"So then what does that make you? Just my mind going crazy from stress again?" D1 Andy asked, calming down quicker than normal.

  
Gunther shook his head, "Powerful entities can send messages through dreams to others. Most often, these messages are considered to be visions."

  
"Wait...are you saying that you're the one who was literally causing me to have those fucked up nightmares?!" D1 Andy demanded to know.

  
Gunther sighed and looked away, "I admit that I was. I was far from the current state of mind that I'm in now and for that, I deeply apologize." He then looked back at D1 Andy, "Although this is not what the original intention of this vision was - after this vision is over, you will wake up."

  
"What about the others?!" D1 Andy asked, once more letting fear take over.

  
"They are unconscious - they are all a lot stronger than they seem, whether they know it or not. However, they are not safe with Damon still there," Gunther answered truthfully. "Unfortunately, it's come down to this - either you and I manage to defeat Damon or we're all as good as dead."


	30. Final Fight

D1 Andy awoke with a start and had to fight the urge to gag at the sight around him. Damon was in the air, laughing maniacally, while D1 Andy's friends and family lied on the ground around him. It was then he noticed D1 Pryce laying next to him, one arm out in front of the prince, as if he was reaching for the other figment.

  
Seeing that combined with everything else they had been through recently, D1 Andy felt a surge of blinding rage rush through him. The last time he had felt like this was during the final fight with Insanity. He was so caught up in his heightened emotions that he didn't even noticed Gunther walk up to him, a solemn expression on his face.

  
_"You have the potential to be a decent fighter with that kind of power."_

  
' _At least I was right about that_.' Gunther placed a hand on D1 Andy's shoulder, watching as the figment turned to look at him.

  
"Gunther?" D1 Andy's voice conveyed a tone of confusion and anger. However, Gunther didn't immediately answer him, instead placing his hand on the figment's forehead.

  
"I saw it before - the potential in you." Without another word, dark energy shot out from Gunther's hand and zapped D1 Andy. To D1 Andy's surprise however, it didn't hurt even though it looked like it should. Instead, he felt the energy rushing through him as a familiar black and red aura surrounded him. In an instant, he took on a more demonic appearance; his hands became clawed, his teeth became sharp, and his eyes changed color to bright red.

  
"I don't know what the hell you just did but if it helps stop Damon, then I'm not complaining," D1 Andy said, holding one of his hands up to his face curiously.

  
"I merely unleashed the power you had hidden within you," Gunther said, turning his attention to Damon. "Now then, I think it's time we put the dragon down."

  
D1 Andy smirked, a boost of confidence surging through him, "Sounds good to me."

  
While Damon had his attention turned to the unconscious bodies before him, the two heroes rushed at him, D1 Andy on the left and Gunther on the right. Both of them attacked him at the same time, one after the other. Damon growled and snapped his head towards the two, " _Who dares_?!"

  
"Who do you think?" D1 Andy snarked, teleporting out of the way of one of the electric orbs. He followed that up with using his new claws to tear into one of Damon's wings, leaving it ripped and bleeding. Gunther followed the figment's lead, wanting to see exactly what the former guard was capable of. Quickly, he tore into Damon's other wing, rendering it useless for flight.

  
Damon let out a roar and snapped his jaws at Gunther. However, Gunther dodged out of the way and punched him as hard as he could, aiming for his already injured eye. While Damon was distracted by the sudden surge of pain in his face, D1 Andy saw the area that D1 Pryce's sword was stuck in and made a grab for it. Once it was in his hand, the figment yanked the sword out of Damon's flesh as roughly as he could. "I'm sure Pryce won't mind if I borrow this for a while," he muttered.

  
Damon was not about to let the two get away with this though. He summoned the electric orbs again and sent them after the two. "You _can't_ dodge them forever," Damon remarked, smirking as his point was proven when Gunther was hit by one. Before Gunther could hit the ground, Damon caught him in one of his front claws.

  
" _Gunther_!" D1 Andy shouted in a rage, rushing at Damon, sword in hand. "Let go of him!"

  
"Well, if you _insist_ ," Damon taunted before slamming the other demon roughly into the ground. Immediately after, he felt pain shoot through his leg as D1 Andy slashed at it repeatedly. Damon then growled and breathed electricity at the figment, only to miss when D1 Andy teleported out of the way.

  
Shaking his head, Gunther got up despite his body's protests. ' _The others are relying on us!_ ' Rushing at his former student, Gunther shoved his claws into the fresh wounds on Damon's leg, drawing forth blood that began to form into a puddle. Desperately, Damon grabbed Gunther in his other claws and pulled him away, lifting him up to look the dragon in the face.

  
As soon as Gunther tried to teleport to freedom, Damon stopped his in his tracks. He clenched his claws shut as tightly as possible, taking delight in hearing the screams coming from the other demon. Just as he started to hear bones beginning to crack, he felt something sharp attack his tail. Dropping Gunther, Damon looked behind him and saw that D1 Andy managed to shove the sword through his tail and into the ground.

  
Roaring, Damon turned and attempted to lunge at D1 Andy, intending on crushing him where he stood. What he overlooked though was exactly how much having his tail ripped in half due to sword would hurt. In addition, he also overlooked the fact that his constant roaring would eventually wake the rest of the teams up. "Man, you _really_ screwed yourself over," D1 Andy snarked.

  
Several murmurs of confusion and concern were heard as the two teams looked around. It was enough to draw Damon's attention away from the figment and his bleeding tail temporarily. "Oh no you don't!" Damon growled out, getting ready to strike the teams down once and for all before they could even think about interfering.

  
" _Now!_ " Gunther yelled, rushing at Damon. D1 Andy grabbed the sword and followed after the demon.

  
" _What_ -?!" Damon screeched in pain as Gunther attacked his uninjured eye repeatedly, effectively leaving him blinded. "No, no, no!" With Damon now unable to see, D1 Andy was able to get close enough to the dragon. Gathering his strength, D1 Andy plunged the sword through the top of Damon's head. Immediately, Damon's body began to shake and he let out one final electric attack that hit both Gunther and D1 Andy. In an instant, Damon fell over and his body reverted back to its original form as he lied on ground, dead.

  
Briefly, D1 Andy could have sworn that he heard the others calling his and Gunther's names. However, as he collapsed roughly to the ground, the only thing he could grasp as his power drained and he returned to normal was Gunther laying nearby. It was then that his vision went black.


	31. Aftermath - Part 1

Gunther groaned as he came to, glancing around confusedly. He was laying on a makeshift bed in a vaguely familiar place. _'I-what? That office building...?_ ' Putting his hand to his head as he felt everything rush back to him, he noticed that he was no longer in full demon form. ' _Must've powered down in my sleep. Wait-shit! Andy_!'

  
Quickly, Gunther tried to get out of the bed only to be pushed back down. Despite this, Gunther struggled against whoever was pushing him back. "Andy! Where is he?!"

  
_"Easy, easy! You'll just make your injuries worse!"_

  
Gunther blinked in confusion as he realized who was standing there. ' _Aiden_?'

  
Another pair of hands carefully ran themselves through Gunther's hair. "Andy is asleep in another room; Pryce is keeping an eye on him."

  
Gunther was even more confused now. _'Arlo?_ ' Finally, he spoke up, albeit after a small coughing fit. "What the hell happened after I passed out?"

  
Aiden grabbed a water bottle that was left on the floor and handed it to Gunther. "Here, drink this."

  
While Gunther drank, Arlo answered his question, "Damon is dead. When you and Andy passed out, everyone was worried that the two of you..."

  
" _Died_ ," Gunther nodded his head as he capped the bottle. "Damon underestimated me _again_. Thankfully, we _both_ underestimated Andy."

  
"Speaking of - what was that about? Before he passed out, he looked... _demonic_?" Aiden asked.

  
Gunther sat up with Arlo's help before he spoke, "Back during the last fight I had against him, I sensed that he had the potential to be stronger. Between that and the research I did into his time as a guard at the darkest parts of the Imagination, I turned out to be right. I merely helped awaken the power hidden within him."

  
The two sides glanced at each other, surprise on their faces. "You can do that?" Aiden questioned, gazing at Gunther.

  
"Most demons can, _if_ we feel someone is worthy of that kind of help," Gunther answered. "Now, not that I'm complaining about your presence but, other than Andy and Pryce, where is everyone?"

  
"They're in the meeting room of this building - hopefully getting some rest, like _you_ should be," Arlo said.

  
Gunther rolled his eyes but smirked slightly, "Like you're one to talk - either of you."

  
Aiden crossed his arms, leaning against the wall, "We were too worried about you to sleep."

  
The demon raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting that for an answer, "What?"

  
"We've...been talking and recently..." Arlo trailed off as he looked at Aiden, his face starting to feel warm.

  
Aiden cleared his throat slightly, "We noticed that we've started...to feel differently about you. Uh... _romantically_." He added the last part quickly, looking at the ceiling, trying to ignore the redness creeping across his face.

  
Gunther blinked as his mind processed what he just heard, "I...you...?"

  
"You don't have to reciprocate...or anything really. We just decided it would be better to tell you instead of staying quiet," Arlo said softly.

  
Gunther did in fact stay silent. His thoughts were racing and he swore to himself that if this were a dream, he'd punch something when he woke up. Finally, he gestured towards them, "Both of you - come here for a moment."

  
Despite the questioning looks they gave him, they both moved so they were standing next to the bed. Suddenly, Gunther grabbed both of them by the hands and pulled them down onto the bed. He moved so that the two of them were on either side of him, his arms around their shoulders. "I'd say you two are crazy for falling in love with me. But...I suppose that would make me a hypocrite considering I feel the same about you both."

  
All was still in that moment, the room as silent as could possibly be. However, that didn't last long as an audible " _oof_!" was heard. In that moment, Gunther found himself being hugged by both of the sides at the same time. "Knock the wind out of me, why don't ya..." Gunther grumbled. Despite this, the demon found himself smiling.


	32. Aftermath - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catching up briefly with D1 Andy and D1 Pryce.

"Argh..." D1 Andy blinked as he woke up, putting a hand to his head. Feeling bandages wrapped around his head, he sighed and sat up, hissing as pain shot through him. Suddenly, he felt something, or rather someone, all but smothering him in a hug.

  
"You're alright!" D1 Pryce yelled happily.

  
"Not if you keep smothering me I won't be," D1 Andy said, his words muffled.

  
D1 Pryce pulled back and grinned sheepishly, "Ah, yes, sorry about that."

  
D1 Andy merely patted him on the shoulder in response. "So is everyone else alright?" He received a nod in response. "Good."

  
"I have a question..." The prince trailed off, getting his boyfriend's attention.

  
"Yeah? Shoot," the other figment said, leaning back slightly.

  
"Where did you learn how to use a sword?" D1 Pryce asked. "You never struck me as a fellow swordsman."

  
D1 Andy merely shrugged, "I'm not. I-uh..." He could feel his face getting warm at this point, "I just...kinda tried to mimic some of your moves..." The next thing he knew, he was being nearly smothered in another hug. ' _Ah jeeze, here we go again_.'

  
Realizing this, D1 Pryce loosened his grip but still had his arms around his boyfriend's shoulders. "Knowing that I was able to help you in some way while you fought that gruesome beast - it is an honor."

  
The other figment rolled his eyes and smirked, "Dramatic sap."

  
"You love this dramatic sap," D1 Pryce replied, matching D1 Andy's smirk with his own.

  
"Hmm...I don't know. You nearly smothered me to death twice right now..." D1 Andy joked.

  
"It was out of _love_!" D1 Pryce answered, mock-offended tone in his voice.

  
"So you admit it!" D1 Andy shouted, following by laughing at the prince's shocked face.

  
The prince got up from the bed and huffed, throwing his arm over his own forehead, " _Alas_! You have tricked me, you scoundrel!" Shaking his head, D1 Andy sudden grabbed D1 Pryce's free hand and yanked him back down onto the bed. Hearing the undignified squeak that came from the other figment, he started snickering.

  
"You are so damn amusing," D1 Andy said while the prince rolled his eyes.

  
" _Barbarian_ ," D1 Pryce muttered, pouting slightly.

  
D1 Andy stuck his tongue out in response before speaking, "You started it."

  
"You did," D1 Pryce replied almost immediately after.

  
"Uh uh, I am _not_ getting into a debate over this," the other figment said, rolling his eyes. Eventually, a peaceful silence overtook the two as they relaxed. However, it was not to last given the two in question.

  
"Hey Andy?" D1 Pryce asked, looking over at the other figment.

  
D1 Andy cracked an eye open, having started to doze off, "Yeah?"

  
"You started it."

  
"I did not!"


	33. A Bright Ending

The next day, everyone was gathered in the meeting room. While Damon was gone, there still remained one question - how was the D2 Team supposed to get home? When they explained what they remembered - a sudden flash of bright light - Gunther come to a realization.

  
"You were brought here, albeit unintentionally, by Damon," Gunther said. Upon seeing the confusion among the others, he continued. "Damon was always one to get his spells mixed up as a child. It seems that when he tried to summon me from the Demon Realm, he cast the wrong spell and summoned the lot of you from your home dimension instead."

  
"Wait- demons can do that?" D2 Thomas asked incredulously.

  
"As long as they have the correct, or in Damon's case - incorrect, spell," Gunther answered. "The Demon Realm is basically its own dimension. As long as we have our magic, we can travel to the other dimensions."

  
"If you ended up there after our last...battle," Arlo said, "wouldn't Damon just end up back there as well?"

  
Gunther shook his head, "There is one thing I made sure to _never_ teach him - how to create a " _life line_ " to the Demon Realm. Without that, he can't come back of his own accord - he'd need a necromancer's help."

  
As the two teams talked for a while longer, Gunther answered as much as he could about the Demon Realm and demon society as a whole. Finally, once Gunther gathered enough power, he performed a spell that opened a portal. They couldn't see what was on the other side of it but it was composed of the same bright light, albeit much dimmer.

  
"This portal will take you home," Gunther merely stated, having had to sit down after pulling off the spell.

  
"Guess this is goodbye then," D1 Thomas said, looking at his doppelganger. "Thanks for all your help."

  
His doppelganger merely grinned, "No problem. Stay safe, okay?"

  
D1 Thomas nodded, "Yeah, you too. All of you."

  
Once the D2 Team was back home after saying their goodbyes, Gunther closed the portal.

  
"...Hey guys?" Thomas asked.

  
"Yeah, Tom?" Aiden responded, sitting on one side of Gunther while Arlo sat on the other side.

  
Thomas's expression turned contemplative as he crossed his arms, "You think we'll ever see them again?"

  
Gunther merely smirked, "If they follow the instructions in the note I left them, we can."

  
"Note? What note?" Thomas looked at him confused.

  
"I _didn't_ take your doppelganger's phone for a bit so Gunther could type out a note in it," Mendax said, matching Gunther's smirk. "It _doesn't_ contain the spell and instructions on how to cast it."

  
Seeing the shock on Thomas's face, the two broke out into laughter. Jokingly, Aiden pushed Gunther a bit, "Don't be a bad influence on my son!" At that, everyone else joined in the laughter. Things were once more looking bright.


End file.
